Identity
by The Fink
Summary: A chance meeting leads to something that Wes never dreamed of and someone who will change his life completely... [NOW COMPLETE]
1. Kismet

This whole venture came about very suddenly. I hadn't planned it, I certainly didn't intend it...but it was a ten tonne, neon pink, bouncing plot bunny -- it's a variety that's too hard to ignore. It came upon me when I watched _Force From The Future_ and _Something To Fight For_ (my first Time Force episodes) and it just wouldn't go away until I put finger to keyboard.

This is the result. The first two chapters are full-blown episode interpretations; the rest are liable to be partial episode interpretations (no, I'm not planning on re-writing all 40 TF episodes!).

Any similarities between dialogue from FFTF 2 and my story are purely coincidental (and have come about because I have a flypaper memory when it comes to film and TV dialogue). Saban and company own these characters and events, and believe me; I make no money from this!

With grateful thanks to Ecolea, Ekat, Leathie and Urs for the suggestions, hints and ideas that have made this better.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing!

~*~

Identity -- Kismet

Silverhills CA, June 2001

Wes was bored. Worse than that -- Wes was bored beyond simply being bored. He was mind-numbingly and excruciatingly **BORED**. The meeting droned on around him -- he'd long since lost the thread of what they were talking about -- and he wished he'd managed to cut this meeting.

"Do you have something to add, Wesley?"

The enquiry from his father made Wes' zoned attention suddenly snap back to the present. "Uh no, sir."

His father looked dubious, but the meeting continued on regardless. _Get me outa here!_ Wes pleaded silently. But there didn't appear to be any acts of God lurking nearby. Just an endless sea of facts and figures, of business strategies and five year plans, of profits and losses and taxes and...

"...thank you for your time, gentlemen."

Wes blinked. Words from heaven! The meeting was over, he was free, he could...

"Wesley you need to pay more attention," chided his father. "This is important."

Wes sighed. "Yes, sir. Is that it for the day?"

His father rolled his eyes. "Yes, that's 'it' for the day. But I expect you to attend tomorrow's session."

But Wes was already on his way out of the conference room. He raced up to his room and hastily changed out of the stuffy 'business' clothes into something more comfortable before racing back downstairs and out to the garage. To his pride and joy: His bike. It was one of the more obvious benefits of belonging to a rich family -- the bike was a top of the line model that ran like an absolute dream. For a moment or two, Wes just enjoyed the smooth, sleek, powerful lines of precision engineering and aerodynamics.

  
Then he grinned. Sure, it looked good -- but it went better. He rammed on his helmet, mounted the bike and switched on the ignition. The bike roared into life. With a smile firmly in place, Wes put it into gear and rolled out of the garage. Soon he was flying down the highway towards the main city of Silverhills. For an all too brief moment in time, he felt utterly free.

~*~

Wes walked into Ruderbaker's still exhilarated from his ride into town.

"Hi Wesley!"

Wes shuddered at the cooing voice. It belonged to Emmie, one of the many society débutantes that his father had introduced him to in the last few years as 'suitable girls'. They all had about as much personality as a limp piece of celery and were only interested in him because of his father's millions. Emmie was, perhaps, marginally better than most of them -- she did at least go through the motions of a life outside of the society pages -- but still...

He had forgotten she -- and the rest of her little coterie -- were likely to be in the hippest coffee shop in Silverhills. For a moment, he considered turning round and walking straight back out.

"Come say hello," Emmie cooed.

Wes sighed. How did you make polite conversation with people who thought shopping was **the** most important thing in life? And then his pager went off. For the first -- and possibly only -- time in his life, Wes was glad of his father's insistence on him carrying it. Pulling it out of his pocket, he read the message: Urgent meeting at Biolab HQ -- ten minutes. Be there!

"Uhh, sorry, ladies," Wes answered, finally looking at Emmie and her friends. "Something's come up -- gotta go."

"Aw but you just got here," Emmie pouted.

Wes smiled apologetically, and did a rapid about face. Who'd have thought the prospect of yet another meeting would suddenly seem so appealing? Still debating that, he crossed Ruderbaker's parking lot to his bike. His father wouldn't be impressed by him turning up out of a suit but what could his father expect?

Lost in thought, Wes wasn't paying a great deal of attention to what was going on around him as he mounted his bike. Pulling on his helmet, he went to put his key in the ignition, only to fumble the whole bunch and drop them on the ground.

"Damn."

Wes carefully leaned over to pick up the fallen keys. As he snagged them, someone walked smack-dab straight into him. The impact wasn't hard -- just enough to remind him that he needed to get out of his head and back into the real world if he was planning on getting to the meeting in one piece.

"Oh, excuse me!"

The voice was a pleasant alto; belonging to...Wes craned his neck to see...a slim, dark haired woman in a white -- was that leather or PVC? -- cat suit. She probably hadn't seen him because of the dark glasses she was wearing. Wes realised he was staring somewhat. But she was very pretty...and looked distracted.

"Hey -- sorry 'bout that," Wes answered, waving.

Having retrieved his keys, he started the bike and started to pull away. As he glanced in his rear-view mirror he realised she was apparently now staring at him. It was difficult to tell, given her shades, but Wes was reasonably sure it was him she was looking at. And the distracted look had been replaced by...puzzlement? What the heck?

Wes frowned. Some kind of sixth sense twinged. Something bad was about to happen. Suddenly this meeting at Biolab that he was supposed to be attending paled by comparison. He didn't know what was going on, but he had the strong sense that he **HAD** to stay in the area.

By now he was out of sight of Ruderbaker's but it wasn't difficult to change course and circle the block. As he did so, loud screams penetrated over the engine noise of the bike. Looking around for the source of the screams he spotted a woman with pink...make that neon pink...hair fighting with the girl who'd walked into him only five minutes earlier. Even as he watched, he spotted two bronze coloured...things sneaking up on the girl.

Without even so much as a thought, he gunned his bike in their direction as the woman with the pink hair...vanished into thin air? Wes dismissed that from his mind -- people didn't vanish into thin air. Then again, girls didn't get blindsided by bronze creatures who then lined up like some kind of firing squad.

He revved the bike and put on an extra burst of speed, just as the two bronze creatures aimed their weapons -- at least Wes assumed they were weapons, although they looked nothing like any weapon he'd ever seen before. The noise of the bike caught their attention and they -- and the girl -- turned.

In the case of the nearest bronze creature, it was in time to see Wes stick his foot out. The bronze thing cannoned into its partner in crime. Wes whipped the bike round and took a moment to assess the situation. The two bronze things had lost all interest in the girl now -- just as well, to judge from the way she was holding her ribs -- and were now staring at him.

"See how you like fighting someone you haven't blind-sided first," Wes muttered, and the fight was on.

In truth, the fight didn't last long. A few good blows and the bronze creatures were on the ground and not moving. He waited another couple of seconds, making sure that they really were done and dusted, before shifting his attention to the girl.

She was staring at him, almost as if he might have possibly crawled out from under a rock. Wes frowned. No -- not quite that. As if she'd seen a ghost. _Chalk that up as one more thing that doesn't make sense,_ Wes decided.

He walked across, intending to ask if she was OK. She just stared at him -- and there was no question about that now; the shades had gone, presumably lost in the fight. Wes shrugged slightly, and pulled of his helmet. But the words 'are you all right' vanished right from his mind as he saw the expression on her face.

Fear. Surprise. Horror. Alarm.

Her eyes flooded with tears and she put a hand to her mouth to not quite stifle a scream.

Wes stared. "Are...you... You look like you've seen a ghost," he concluded lamely. She didn't manage anything coherent in response. Just a string of half started syllables.

"Jen! Are you OK?"

Wes glanced in the direction of the shout and saw three more people; all wearing the same kind of jump suit as the girl -- Jen -- was. Two of them were male and vaguely Asiatic to look at, although one of them had bright green hair. _Dye job,_ Wes noted at the back of his mind. The third was a tall coloured woman.

It had been the woman who had called, but Jen made no response. Her eyes were still firmly fixed on Wes' face, her expression still resembling that of a deer caught in the headlights of a Mack truck.

But now the newcomers had reached them, and Wes became aware that the three of them were also staring. The green haired one's eyes widened and a smirk crept across his face. The other Asian just stared.

The coloured woman's eyes widened and she grabbed his cheeks, pinching hard. "Doesn't he look just like..."

"What?" Wes batted away her grasping hands. "What's going on?"

"No, no he doesn't." They were the first complete words that Jen had spoken since Wes had come to her rescue, and somehow Wes got the impression that the other three didn't agree with her assessment.

"Would somebody mind telling me what's going on?" Wes asked.

"Um...sorry...um...thank you..." Jen was back to stammering. "I'm fine now. Um...thank you."

__

Sure. Don't tell the guy you've just been staring at like he's got an extra head. Outwardly, Wes shrugged. "Whatever." He turned back to his bike. "Well I had a blast, but...I gotta jam."

He could feel them staring at him as he walked back to where he'd left his bike, ticking over. The weight of their combined stare made him feel vaguely itchy as he mounted the bike, pulling his helmet back on, but they didn't seem over inclined to explain what it was all about. _Fine -- whatever._ Wes pulled away from the plaza and from Ruderbaker's without a backward glance.

Before he could really think about it, he was on the highway, heading for home. He knew that his father would be very annoyed at his no-show at this meeting, but Wes knew he was in no mind to concentrate on the intricacies of the business at the moment. Why waste both their time? No. All Wes wanted to do was get home, grab a shower and erase the last hour of his life.

~*~

"Master Wesley..."

"I know, Phillips, I know." Wes looked at the butler, who was slowly shaking his head in disapproval. "I've just..."

"Mr. Collins was rather concerned when you failed to arrive at the meeting at Biolab."

Wes rolled his eyes. "Well as you can see, I didn't fall off the 'damn bike'. I just...didn't have my pager with me."

Phillips just gave him 'the look' that all parents -- or surrogate parents -- have perfected. The look which says 'just how dumb do you think I am?' "I'll tell him." Phillips leant a little closer to Wes. "But I should make myself scarce if I were you."

Wes sighed. "You're probably right. Thanks Phillips."

The butler smiled. "You're welcome, Master Wesley."

Wes slowly hauled himself up the stairs towards his bedroom. The whole experience at Ruderbaker's had left him very confused -- and more than a little unnerved. And then there was what his father would say as and when he came home. Wes was under no illusions on that count -- there was no way he would believe the flimsy excuse of a missing pager anymore than Phillips had. _But what else can I say? Sorry, I didn't go to the meeting because I was saving the life of someone I'm not likely to ever see again who then stared at me like I was some kind of freak? Yeah -- that would go down real well._

In disgust, Wes walked through his bedroom into the en suite bathroom and started to strip off his clothing in preparation for the long, hot shower he was planning to take.

__

"He looks just like..."

"No he doesn't."

The whole exchange didn't make sense. Wes climbed into the shower and turned it on. It was painfully clear that he had reminded Jen of someone, at the very least. Someone her other friends clearly also knew. Yet... Why would she say he didn't? Part of him wanted to just put it down to women being difficult to understand...except that it wasn't that. He cranked the temperature up higher. It felt like he was staring at a jigsaw puzzle but only seeing half the pieces -- and those pieces he was seeing didn't seem to mean anything either.

"Wesley!"

His father's shout was loud enough to be heard through the door and over the sound of the running shower. That wasn't a good sign. Wes sighed and turned to face into the scalding stream of water. Erasing the last hour of his life seemed better and better all the time.

There was a pounding on the bathroom door.

"Wesley!"

Wes sighed -- a sound easily masked by the running water. "What, dad?"

"That meeting was important."

"I'm sorry, dad."

"You're always 'sorry'...Wesley you have to learn to keep your commitments."

Wes felt like yelling back that he hadn't committed to go to the damn meeting in the first place. Instead he meekly answered, "Yes, sir."

When there was nothing more from his father, Wes assumed that the older man had left. Easily dismissing the intrusion, he turned his attention to washing off the grime and trying to forget about Jen and her friends. By the time he'd finished, the water was barely lukewarm and while he was clean, he'd been rather less successful when it came to dismissing Jen from his thoughts.

Sighing, he turned off the shower and climbed out. After cursorily drying himself with a towel, he pulled on the robe that hung from a hook on the back of the bathroom door and opened the door.

"Ah, Wesley."

Wes' jaw dropped open. The last thing he'd been expecting was his father to wait for him. And even stranger, he looked concerned.

"Dad!"

"Phillips said you seemed to be...preoccupied when you came in," his father began, somewhat awkwardly. "Is there anything you'd care to tell me about?"

__

Darn it Phillips why did you have to mention that?! Wes just stared at his father, opening and shutting his mouth, saying nothing.

"You can tell me, you know," his father prompted. "I was your age once, you know." And he gave that half-strangled laugh that people give when they're not at ease with a situation. At the back of his mind, Wes thought he might have heard it from Jen earlier in the day.

"Uh, no...nothing's wrong..."

His father looked sceptical. "Are you sure?"

  
Wes nodded. "Yes...I'm just...tired. That's it -- I'm just tired."

His father still looked sceptical, but to Wes' relief, he clearly decided not to pursue matters. "Well...in that case, I'd better let you...get some rest. Big day tomorrow."

Wes plastered on a smile. "Can't wait."

"Good...good."

Wes watched as his father left the room, then sank down onto the bed. Somehow, between the time he'd got up this morning and now, his life had managed to become extremely complicated.

~*~

A good night's sleep seemed to do wonders for Wes' equilibrium. By the time he got downstairs the following morning, the events of the previous afternoon and evening seemed a long time ago -- some of them seemed almost dreamlike -- and as far as Wes was concerned, that was just fine with him. He wandered into the kitchen to try and scrounge some of the food that was being prepared for the buffet lunch.

"Master Wesley, which would you prefer?" Phillips asked, holding out two grey suit jackets and preventing Wes from raiding the buffet.

Wes turned a critical eye on the two jackets. "How about..." He shot Phillips a grin. "Neither of them."

Phillips rolled his eyes. "But Master Wesley..."

Seeing his access to the food was blocked, Wes turned and headed back out of the kitchen and headed for the study, pursued by Phillips. As Wes turned to face Phillips to tell him that really, he didn't want to wear **either** of the suit jackets, he spotted someone who looked deeply out of place in the study.

Jen.

Instead of a comment about suit jackets, Wes asked, "What's she doing here? "

Phillips smiled conspiratorially. "Wants to speak to you," he confided, "says it's important."

Wes looked at her, sitting bolt upright and staring straight ahead and was about to ask what she wanted when his father walked in.

"Now, you're not going to be late, are you Wesley?" his father began.

Suddenly, Wes knew he had to find a way out of the meeting. Jen's posture screamed that she didn't want to be there, her actions the previous day suggested that she wanted nothing to do with him. So the fact that she was here now...

"Actually dad, you know what? I'm not going to be able to make the meeting today." His father stared. "I have a date."

  
"A date?"

"Yes...um..." Wes reached for Jen, but she had clearly been playing more attention to what was going on around her than had been apparent and she was already on her feet. "This is..."

"My name's Jen," she put in. "How do you do?"

"And I had...ah...said that I would take...ah...Jen out today. And you know I should never break my commitments, dad."

For a full minute, Wes thought his father was going to explode right there and then. He finally managed a strangled, "Charmed." before turning on his heel and storming out.

"C'mon."

Wes led Jen out of the house and down to the garage. He swung his leg over his bike, crossed his arms and leaned on his helmet, which he had left balanced on the bike handlebars.

"Now we're even," he stated. Jen just stared at him. Wes rolled his eyes. _Been here before -- mind if I **don't** stay this time?_ But as he reached for the keys to start the bike up, Jen grabbed them. "Hey! Give me those!"

"I need to talk to you."

Wes just stared at her, waiting. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. _Yeah -- you don't like it much, either._

"We need your help," she finally said.

"We? Who's we?" Wes asked.

Jen glared, but explained, "Katie, Trip, Lucas and myself."

__

Presumably they're the other three from yesterday, Wes decided. "OK. You want my help?"

"Yes." From an unseen pocket she produced a strange looking device that almost looked like a silver-grey egg that had been split in half. She reached for his left wrist. "We need you to put on this morpher and activate it..."

"Woa!" Wes leant back to avoid her grab. "What's a morpher?"

Jen sighed. "You wouldn't believe me."

__

Wouldn't I? "Try me."

There was something of a pregnant pause, then Jen said, "My friends and I are really from the year 3000. We've come here chasing a dangerous criminal and his band of mutants who escaped through time to capture him and take him back with us. We think you are the only person who can unlock these morphers and to help us defeat them."

Wes stared at her. A tiny part of his mind said 'she's telling the truth', but the rest of him was just incredulous. "I believe you."

Jen smiled. "Then..." she started forward.

"Woa -- I believe you're nuts," Wes continued, shaking his head.

For a second, Jen froze. Then, with an expression on her face that would have melted titanium, much less flesh and blood, she flung his keys back. "I **knew** you wouldn't do it -- you're **nothing** like him."

She started to stalk away. It was on the top of Wes' tongue to ask who this mysterious 'him' was, when she suddenly stopped.

"Ransik is attacking the city!" Wes stared, wide eyed. There was no one else in the garage, yet someone else had clearly spoken. Even as he stared, Jen turned fractionally and he could see a similar egg-shaped device on her left wrist. Except that hovering over hers was a small head-and-shoulders image of the green haired guy. "Jen, we need you!"

"I read you Trip -- on my way."

Before Wes could say anything, Jen had taken to her heels and fled, leaving him with the sinking sensation that every single word she had said to him was true.

__

Oh man...

For a long time Wes just sat there, on his bike, watching as Jen raced down the drive, and then continuing to stare after her long beyond his ability to see her.

Someone was attacking the city.

They wanted his help.

Someone was **attacking** the city.

They wanted **his** help.

Not his money. Not his father's backing.

They wanted **his** help.

So why was he still sitting here? It took him all of a minute to force his helmet on, start the bike and head out. They wanted his help? They could have it.

~*~

Wes had assumed it would be difficult to find Jen and her friends in a city the size of Silverhills, but it actually proved very easy: There was a huge swath of damage and chaos through the CBD. He followed the trail, passing hordes of people running in the other direction. Sure enough, it brought him to the battle site -- just in time to see Jen and the others thrown to the ground by...some kind of energy blast from... Looking at the group opposing Jen and her friends, Wes wasn't sure.

He didn't think it had been the woman with the pink hair or the large blue...thing -- and Wes didn't even want to TRY and identify that -- but the other two... One was clearly a robot while the other was a large man wearing lots of black leather and silvery armour and a partial facemask. The bolt looked as if it had come from the man...but men couldn't fire energy bolts.

Even as he was debating that, Wes parked his bike and slipped his helmet off. As the man advanced on the four injured friends, Wes found himself moving towards the scene. The man reached for Jen.

"I have to admire your courage," the man was saying. "But his fate will be yours."

He didn't have time to wonder about the words as the man grabbed Jen and flung her high into the air and across the street as if she was nothing more than a rag doll. Without even thinking about it, Wes darted forward, desperate to some how save Jen.

It was instinct, Wes later decided. It certainly wasn't conscious thought. He found himself vaulting from the sidewalk to the hood of a nearby car, then using the front shocks as a springboard he leapt into the air, blocking Jen's flight. They both crashed to the ground, Jen landing, winded but whole, on Wes.

Wes winced a little as he moved to sit up. That landing had **hurt**! But it was worth it -- if for nothing else, then for the look on Jen's face. She was staring at him, again, but this time at least she didn't look as though he was either the scum of the earth or the most frightening thing she'd ever seen. She almost looked...no, she did look grateful. Surprised, Wes decided, but definitely grateful.

"So...am I too late to help?" he asked, smiling a little tentatively.

Jen picked herself up, and glanced at her friends, who had managed to also recover. As Wes got to his feet and the other three joined them, he noted that the trio looked anxious. He turned his attention back to Jen, wondering what she was going to say -- wondering if he was going to get compared to this mysterious other person again.

Jen reached into her pocket and produced the morpher. She glanced down at it in her hand then met Wes' gaze and held it out to him. "It's yours."

Wes accepted the device and looked at it for a moment. _Instruction manual? Anybody?_ A movement caught his eye. Glancing up he saw the green haired youth...Trip...mime pressing something against his wrist. Wes gave an internal shrug. _Here goes nothing..._ Gripping the morpher in his right hand, he brought it down on his left wrist.

There was an agonising moment when nothing seemed to happen. Then Wes felt a rush of energy sweep through him, running up his left arm, up his neck and then pouring down through the whole of his body. It felt like nothing he'd ever experienced. But almost as soon as it started, it stopped, leaving what he quickly termed as a background hum of new energy. Startling him out of his cataloguing of the new sensation, the morpher bleeped.

"DNA Confirmed."

__

What the hell is **that** supposed to mean? he wondered, confused. _Confirmed against what?_

"Let's do it," stated Jen, turning on her heel and heading back to the rampaging...whatever they were...almost the instant the morpher bleeped.

Wes found himself following, despite a little voice in the back of his mind informing him that this was comfortably the single most stupid idea he had ever had.

The woman with the pink hair was the first to spot him, as she openly stared. "Daddy, didn't you already take care of him?" she whined.

The man in the facemask just snorted. "It doesn't matter." The man pointed straight at Wes with a sword which -- at least until this moment -- Wes hadn't noticed before. "I destroyed you once -- I will destroy you again."

Wes frowned. "What's he talking about?"

"It doesn't concern you," Jen hissed. Wes wanted to argue with that, but she was already calling out a fresh command. "Ready?"

"Ready!" The chorus came from Trip, Katie, Lucas -- and belatedly Wes.

"Time for Time Force!"

Hesitantly Wes matched the others in the shout, and then followed their example and pressed one of the buttons on the morpher, without knowing why and without knowing what was going to happen next.

The background hum of energy suddenly swelled and surged, and Wes felt himself rip apart. There was a brief yet endless moment of pure, unadulterated terror. Then everything that been torn in two was reformed, differently. And then it was over. Leaving him feeling energised. The whole transformation had lasted barely a second, Wes realised, but what had actually happened? Opening eyes he didn't remember closing, he realised he was looking out at the same street as before -- except through the tinted visor of a helmet.

Reflexively he put his hands up to confirm what his eyes were seeing, and they did, indeed, come into contact with the hard shell of a full head helmet, although it was about as different from his bike helmet as you could get. This one was light and almost absurdly roomy, whereas his bike crash helmet was a close, tight fit -- and heavy with it. The last remaining doubts about Jen and her story vanished in the face of irrefutable proof.

"Man you guys were telling the truth..."

Then Wes was startled out of his introspection.

"Time Force **RANGERS**?!" the man in black and silver exclaimed. Beside him, the woman with the pink hair snorted fit to burst a blood vessel.

"You won't get away this time, Ransik," Jen vowed.

"We'll see about that," hissed the man...Ransik. "Cyclobots!" He gestured to the horde of waiting bronze creatures who rushed forward.

And there was no time for Wes to analyse what was going on around him. Unlike the previous day on the plaza where he had been the surprise, this time the Cyclobots knew he was there...and in one or two cases, it seemed, knew what to expect from him. The...whatever it was that had just happened to him...seemed to help -- there suddenly seemed to be much more information in the back of his mind, some of it didn't seem to make much sense at the moment, but some of it related directly to fighting Cyclobots -- but it was still a difficult fight.

And yet...he enjoyed it. There was a little voice in the back of his mind screaming: _This could get you killed_. But it didn't seem to matter. It was fun. It was exciting. It was about as far away from what his father wanted him to be as was humanly -- or inhumanly -- possible. And the more Cyclobots he took down, the more his confidence grew.

As he felled yet another of the bronze...robots, he discovered...there was an almighty explosion that drew his attention. Ransik had long since left the battlefield, but the pink haired woman, the robot and the blue...whale? Frog?...were still present. But all three of them now seemed to be down and injured.

"Give up Nadira," Jen commanded.

"No way!" hissed the pink haired woman...Nadira. "My daddy will beat you." She glanced at the robot. "Frax!"

"Transporting now," Frax answered, and the trio suddenly faded out of sight.

Somehow, in the light of what else had just occurred Wes was more prepared to accept three people...robots...creatures vanishing into thin air. It took several moments for him to realise that the fighting was finished.

When he did, the relief hit him hard, making him feel light-headed and euphoric. He wasn't alone -- both Katie and Trip were bouncing excitedly.

"Ready guys?" Jen commanded. She and the others pressed another button on their morphers. "Power down!" There was a flash of light, and then the quartet was stood in their white jump suits once more.

Belatedly, Wes followed their example, still utterly jazzed by the whole experience. He couldn't contain his excitement. "That was **great**! I must have taken on a dozen of those...tinheads!" He looked over to see Trip and Katie at his side, smiling and obviously as excited about the fight as he was. "And you guys," he continued, "man-oh-man, you guys are **awesome**!" Turning to Lucas, he added, "Lucas, how many did you get?" 

Lucas just stared, silently and impassively back. Disappointed that he didn't get a response, Wes waved his hand in front of the other man's face, and whistled, desperately trying to get him to snap out of it. Unable to get a rise, he turned, chuckling, and bumped into an angry Jen.

"This isn't a **game**, Wes," Jen snapped. "We're fighting for our future."

Wes shrugged. "OK...lighten up -- I'm just saying that I can't wait to do it again."

Before he could register what was happening, Jen had grabbed his left arm in a painful hold and twisted it round so that she had easy access to the morpher. "You won't get the chance." So saying, she forcibly removed the morpher.

There was a physical sensation as the background hum of energy suddenly vanished. Combined to the pain in his arm, Wes winced. "Ouch! Hey! What's the deal?!"

Jen released his arm and stepped back. "We needed you to unlock the morphers, and you did it. We don't need your help any more."

Wes could only stare in total disbelief. Jen returned his gaze. "Whatever." Wes shrugged and forced himself not to care as he turned his back on Jen and her friends. He started to walk back to where he'd parked his bike earlier.

As he went, he could hear Lucas trying to reason with Jen.

"You're not being fair to him," he stated calmly.

"I'm keeping him from getting killed," Jen retorted.

Wes wondered if they realised he could hear them.

"He's not Alex," put in Trip.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jen asked harshly. "I know he's not Alex. I can **see** he's not Alex."

Wes was sorely tempted to turn round and demand an explanation, but something made him hold back. Partly it was because he had no desire to get his head bitten off by Jen, again. But mostly it was because he strongly suspected that he wouldn't get the explanation, even if he asked.

As he finally reached his bike, he realised the voices behind him had died down. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that the others had gone, and with them, his chance of an explanation. _What do I care?_ he asked himself as he pulled on his earlier discarded helmet. But at the back of his mind, he knew he did care. _This is dumb -- I don't know them, they don't know me...I just did them a favour. That's all._ But it hadn't felt like a favour.

  
It had felt right.

Just as he had known to stick around at the plaza the day before, he knew this was something he had to do.

Fate, destiny, kismet...call it what you liked, he knew.

As he started the bike up all kinds of new thoughts crowded through his mind and heading the list: _I have to get Jen to change her mind about me. Prove to her I'm not what she thinks..._

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Last Chance

Any similarity between the dialogue in this story and the dialogue from Something to Fight For is purely coincidental (and has come about because I have flypaper for a memory when it comes to Film and TV dialogue). I don't own these events or these characters, Saban does, and believe me I'm making no money from this.

More grateful thanks to Ecolea, Urs, Leathie and Ekat -- you guys are wonderful

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing

~*~

Identity -- Last Chance 

"Master Wesley!"

Wes pulled the pillow down over his head, hoping that Phillips would go away. Insomnia had stuck in the aftermath of the previous day's events. He had found himself replaying every single instant of the day, from seeing Jen in the study to hearing her vitriolic admonishment of the suggestion that she didn't know that he wasn't Alex...whoever Alex was. He analysed it all, trying to work out how to improve Jen's opinion of him.

"Master Wesley!" This time there was an accompanying knock on the bedroom door. "It's half past eight -- you have a meeting at half past nine."

Wes groaned into the pillow and rolled over. "All right...a'right...'m awake."

"Are you?" enquired Phillips, in a tone of voice Wes knew well. It was the tone of voice that suggested that the elder man knew full well that Wes was either lying or not telling the full truth.

Wes groaned again and forced himself to get out of bed. "'M up."

Wes sighed as he heard Phillips chuckle and walk away. Returning to bed felt like a good option. But, after the lecture his father had given him about attending meetings, he decided against it. Instead, he blearily stumbled into the bathroom to have a shower.

~*~

Half an hour after waking, Wes found himself in the back of his father's limousine being driven towards Biolab's headquarters for the half past nine meeting, wrestling with the necktie that Phillips had handed to him.

"I hate these things!" Wes growled to no-one in particular.

Phillips, acting as chauffeur, snorted. "You cannot attend an executive meeting without a necktie."

Wes was tempted to say 'Watch me!', but before he could form the words something about the view from the limousine snagged his attention. He stopped and looked. They were stopped at traffic lights by one of Silverhills' banks, through the window of which he could see a cyclobot waving its weapon -- the term cyclosabre drifted free from the mass of information that had been dumped into his mind the previous afternoon -- at some hapless bank customer. Then there was a flash of hot pink, and Nadira came into view, just as the lights changed.

The car started forward but Wes was already moving for the door.

"Phillips - stop!"

The car jerked to a halt again, and Wes leapt out of the door.

"Where are you going?!" Phillips exclaimed.

Without even looking back, Wes answered, "Just...um...tell them..." Wes' eyes fell on more cyclobots. "Just tell them something came up." Then, without waiting for Phillips to say anything else, Wes entered the bank.

"Alright you bolt brains," Nadira was screeching, "let's blow this joint!"

Wes just casually leaned against the doorjamb, and waited for Nadira to spot that her exit was blocked. It didn't take long. She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. Wes smirked.

"You again!"

Wes made a mocking bow and stepped forward. "You're gonna make me kick your butt again, aren't ya?"

"**You kicked ****my butt?" Nadira retorted. "Let me ****jog your memory." Wes just smiled and started to roll up his sleeves in preparation for the fight. "Let's ****rock!"**

"Bring it on," Wes answered, dropping into a ready stance.

The two cyclobots either side of Nadira dropped their loot and dashed forward, intent on taking Wes down. Wes stepped forward to meet the charge of the first bronze robot, grabbing its outstretched arm and using its own momentum to toss it over his shoulder. He had barely released his grip on that one when was he pivoting to deliver a kick to the gut of the second.

As the second cyclobot shot backwards and landed in a heap, Wes dropped into a ready stance.

"Is that the best you've got, Nadira?" he taunted.

Nadira sneered. "Oh there's plenty more."

"Well looky who decided to crash our party!"

At the sound of a new voice, Wes whipped his head round and saw the blue whale...frog...thing of the previous day and an army of cyclobots. _I'm toast!_

"Oh, Gluto," Nadira cooed. "Would you be so kind?"

The whale...frog...thing -- Gluto, as Nadira had called it -- chuckled maniacally. "Anything for you, Nadira." Motioning the cyclobots forward, Gluto added, "Get him!"

Wes backed up a couple of paces, going onto the defensive in the face of so many attacking robots. He blocked a few kicks and punches, all the while glancing round for anything that could be used as a weapon. His eyes finally fell on one of the barrier posts -- perfect. He snapped off a kick to clear his path and then dived for the post.

He grabbed it and brought it to bear just as the cyclobot he'd kicked out of the way brought its cyclosabre down, intending to split Wes' head in two. Instead the two metal objects met with a crash.

Wes parried the cyclosabre awkwardly and regained his feet. Taking a better grasp of the post, he swung it like a club, sending several cyclobots flying. But at the second swing, one of the cyclobots grabbed it and pulled, yanking the post out of Wes' hands and dragging him off balance. He stumbled forward, only to catch a kick in the chest that sent him staggering backwards into an obstruction of some kind.

Robbed of his balance, Wes fell, only to find himself land on the obstruction -- a desk chair. As the cyclobots closed in, Wes hurriedly stood up, kicking the chair into some of the on coming robots. He backed up some more, only to feel the desk now at his back. In a move born of desperation, he gripped the desk edge and leaned back. He kicked his feet out, incidentally sending a couple of cyclobots flying, and rolled over to come upright on top of the desk.

He prepared to vault over the mass of cyclobots and into some open space when an unseen cyclosabre hooked his ankles, taking his legs out from under him. He landed heavily on his back, on the desktop before rolling to the floor, winded and defeated.

"**GET him!" Nadira screamed.**

Wes found himself being grabbed by several cyclobots and roughly manhandled out of the bank. The robots flung him out onto the tarmac of the parking lot in front of the bank but before he even had a chance to regain his feet, the cyclobots had hemmed him in, parting only to let Nadira through their ranks.

She smiled sweetly. "Game **over," she gloated, and extended her right hand as though she was offering Wes a hand up. But before he could say or do anything, her fingernails extended into foot long, glinting, metal claws that were aimed right at his heart.**

Wes didn't feel trapped -- he felt dead.

Nadira raised her hand, ready to make the killing blow.

Wes closed his eyes.

But the blow never came. Instead, Nadira gave a squeal of surprise and pain. "My **nail! She ****broke my ****NAIL!"**

Wes opened his eyes and found himself staring into the green faceplate of Trip's helmet. A glance left showed him Lucas, while a glance right showed him Katie. Mechanically, Wes allowed them to help him up.

"Let's go," Jen commanded, having dispatched a couple of cyclobots that were in the way of their escape route.

As they fled from the bank, leaving Nadira to whine about the loss of her fingernail, Wes slowly recovered from the near-death moment. He wasn't sure what had happened to Nadira's fingernail, but he was equally sure he wasn't going to ask. What had he been thinking when he'd gone into the bank in the first place? _Impressing Jen, he thought in self-disgust. __And very impressed she is -- she's so impressed she's as likely to stick you through the nearest brick wall. That much was certainly true -- the anger was rolling off Jen in waves._

Once they were what she deemed to be a safe distance from the bank, she called halt.

"Power down!"

There were four flashes of light which made Wes flinch back, shielding his eyes. When his vision cleared, he could see Lucas, Trip, Katie and Jen all stood there, back in their white jump suits. Before he could say anything, Jen rounded on him, forcing him against a nearby wall.

"What the **heck were you doing?" she yelled.**

"Hey!" Wes put his hands up to defend himself as Jen stepped into his personal space.

"Well?"

"Look, what's your problem?" Wes retorted. "I'm fighting on your side." He underlined his words by jabbing his finger in Jen's direction, but she just slapped it away.

"You're not fighting at all -- you're **playing," she answered.**

  
Katie and Trip both looked ready to butt in, but Lucas got there first. "This isn't a game for us," murmured the tall Asian.

Lucas' calm words cut through the heat of Jen's anger and Wes' own embarrassment. Wes nodded minutely. "I know."

Jen stepped back, her anger apparently cooling off a little as she studied him thoughtfully. "You've never had to fight for anything in your life, have you?" she finally asked.

"Sure I have," Wes retorted, his own anger coming to the surface. Memories of having to fight tooth and nail for his father's attention when he was a child surfaced and ran parallel to more recent memories of fighting to make his own life outside of his father's shadow.

"Oh?" Jen raised an eyebrow. "Name one thing that you sacrificed **everything for." Wes opened his mouth to say something, but Jen got in first. "Something that helped ****everyone but you." Wes closed his mouth again. "Something you couldn't ****buy."**

Wes wanted to refute her accusation. He wanted to prove to her that yes, he had made sacrifices...that he wasn't the spoiled brat she so clearly thought he was. But the only thing that came to mind was a failed friendship when he had been in school -- sure he had sacrificed popularity and a social life for it, but the recipient had thrown the whole effort back in his face.

"That's what I thought." Jen's words felt like a dagger to Wes' heart. Before he could say anything else, she turned on her heel. "Let's go."

She started off down the alley, followed by Lucas and Katie. Trip hesitated for a few moments, staring at Wes.

"C'mon Trip," Jen called.

Trip shrugged apologetically and followed the others, leaving Wes alone with the uncomfortable realisation that Jen was right. Not only had he now screwed up twice, he was also likely to be ripped apart -- at least verbally -- by his father for not attending the meeting this morning. _Just kill me now and save us all the trouble..._

~*~

Surprisingly, his father said very little when Wes finally returned home. It turned out that the meeting Wes was supposed to have attended had been postponed anyway and as far as his father was concerned, Wes had received the message in time. Phillips had clearly not said anything to the contrary, and Wes was not about to disabuse his father of that notion either.

So instead of a dressing down, Wes found himself with an unexpectedly free afternoon. Normally, that would be his cue to go into Silverhills and hang out at Ruderbaker's, but after the last two and a half days -- and for that matter, after what happened the last time he went to Ruderbaker's -- the last thing Wes felt inclined to do was 'hang out'. Besides which, his body just ached too much after this morning's fight.

He settled for having a hot shower -- which helped to ease the stiffness -- and then heading down to the garage to tinker with his bike. It gave him more of an opportunity to think about what Jen had said.

What was it about her that gave her such an ability to hurt him, anyway? But that was a question that Wes immediately shied away from. That was treading on dangerous ground. Instead he focused on her image of him as a spoiled brat. Was he?

Picking up a rag to clean off the bike's paintwork, which had got sooty as a result of yesterday's adventures, he frowned. Sure, he'd had everything that money could buy...but...he wasn't like the rest of the people he'd been at school with. He couldn't care less about owning the latest this, that, or the other. But...

Maybe he was spoiled. And this morning's little performance had definitely marked him down as a brat. Wes groaned softly. What was it his father was always saying? First impressions, Wesley, are the most important thing about a meeting -- it was a comment that was invariably followed by some form of lecture. But in this instance, Wes couldn't help but think it matched perfectly.

_Jen's first real impression was of me being a juvenile idiot and no matter what I do now that's how she's going to see me. Wes frowned. Yesterday he'd been so full of hope that he could change Jen's opinion of him...today all that hope seemed to have turned to ashes._

"Master Wesley?"

Phillips' voice jerked him out of the depressing reverie. "I'm in here," Wes called.

Phillips appeared in the garage doorway. "I thought you might like to know that dinner is almost ready."

"Oh. Right." Wes looked down at the bike, still covered in soot and smudge marks. "I'll be right in."

Phillips made a tut-tut sound with is tongue, but merely answered, "I'll tell your father."

With that, Phillips withdrew. Wes looked over the bike again -- it would take more than a damp rag to clean it, he realised. _Can't even clean a bike right._

Filled with self-loathing, Wes turned and headed back towards the house, vehemently wishing that he had never laid eyes on Jen and her friends.

~*~

After a night filled with broken dreams and nightmares, Wes was almost glad to hear his alarm go off. Today, he decided, getting out of bed, was going to be different. He was going to be the model son. No more goofing off, no more cutting meetings...he was going to be what his father wanted him to be. Even if it killed him.

As he showered, shaved and dressed, he ran through the day's schedule -- executive meetings, mostly. Fortunately, all held in the conference room downstairs, so no possible excuse to bump into... He left that thought unfinished, not wanting to poke the wound.

Instead, he headed downstairs, into the dining room and helped himself to breakfast.

"Good morning, Wesley." His father sounded slightly surprised.

"Hi dad."

"Is there something wrong?"

Wes looked up to see his father staring at him. "Should there be?"

"No...no...you're... You're up early," his father finished.

Wes shrugged. "Like you always say, dad, gotta get up early to get ahead."

"Yes...yes."

Wes turned his attention back to his food. "So...what's on the agenda this morning?"

His father choked on his morning coffee. "Wesley are you sure you're all right?"

Wes smiled faintly. "Never better, dad." He could feel his father scrutinising him. "Honest."

"If you say so." But his father remained dubious as he outlined the day's plans.

Wes finished his meal and moved to leave the dining room. "What time are we starting?"

"Nine o'clock."

Wes nodded. "I'll be there."

He left the dining room, aware that his father watched every step of his departure, and sighed. It seemed he couldn't even be what his father wanted him to be without messing up. Well -- this was his life. He was just going to have to suck it up and move on.

Glancing at his watch, he noted that it was a little before eight o'clock. An hour to kill before the meetings. He was tempted to go out to the garage and spend the time attempting to shift some more of the soot and grime from his bike, but one glance down at himself was enough to remind him that he was dressed for business meetings, not tinkering with bikes. That left him the only real option of sitting quietly in the study catching up on the assorted business journals his father insisted he read.

Grimacing, Wes entered the study and started leafing through the first periodical that came to hand. Unfortunately, the articles were as dry and as uninteresting as Wes remembered and it took all of five minutes for him to realise that this was going to be a fast route to dozing off. In disgust, he replaced the magazine and wandered out of the study onto the terrace.

In spite of the early hour, the terrace was already well warmed in the June sunlight. Wes slowly walked along the terrace, basking in the warmth. He found a spot just in the shade, stopped and leaned on the balustrade to look out over the more than ample grounds. It really was a very beautiful place to live...

_"Name one thing you've sacrificed everything for. Something that benefited everyone but you. Something you couldn't buy."_

Jen's demand came back to him once more. He put his head in his hands and groaned. He had a business meeting in less than an hour -- he couldn't afford to have those words echoing round his mind again.

"Hey!"

The call was barely loud enough to be heard, but it penetrated Wes' thoughts. He started looking around for the source.

"Wes!"

That call was easier to follow. It came from the pool area. Glancing down, Wes finally spotted the shouter. Trip. Wes felt his shoulders sag -- why couldn't they leave him alone?

"Wes...please -- I need to talk to you."

Trip sounded desperate. _Who am I trying to kid -- I don't want to be **this, Wes realised. The resolution that he had made only that morning faded away -- business was not for him. He took a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure there was no-one to see him pull his favourite stunt. Convinced he was unobserved, he took a couple of steps back and then vaulted the balustrade to land on the lower terrace, some ten feet below. It was a manoeuvre that had caused both Phillips and his father more than a few heart palpitations, both were convinced that Wes would break a leg -- or worse -- doing it, but Wes had long since learned how to avoid injury.**_

Trip, it seemed, wasn't alarmed by the jump -- in fact, to judge from the expression on his face, as Wes got nearer, it seemed as if he'd been expecting it.

"What are you doing here?" Wes asked as he neared the green haired youth. "More to the point, how did you know where to look?"

Trip smiled faintly. "We...traced your bike's license plate."

"Oh." There didn't seem to be a lot else Wes could say. "So...?" he prompted.

"I needed to see you...to explain. Jen..." Trip began.

Wes put his hands up to stop him. "No -- I think Jen made it pretty clear yesterday." All the self-doubts that had sprung to life the previous afternoon swam to the fore again. "She thinks I'm nothing but a spoiled brat." Wes sighed and saw down on a nearby pool lounger. "I don't know -- maybe she's right."

"She's not right," Trip replied with certainty. "I know she isn't."

"How?" Wes asked flatly.

For answer, Trip ran his fingers through his hair, pushing his fringe off his forehead to reveal a small, green dot roughly in the middle of it. "I'm from the planet Xybria. This," and he gently touched the dot, "gem gives me special visions." He looked a little self-conscious explaining. "I know you're a good guy, Wes."

Wes struggled to take in the idea of Trip coming from another planet. "Um...where is that?"

Trip smiled. "A long way from here...and yes, the hair is natural." Wes studied the paving beneath his feet, feeling deeply embarrassed. "It's OK -- it's kinda a lot to take in, I know."

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Now...let me show you something."

Before Wes could say anything, Trip pressed one of the buttons on his morpher. Suddenly a small image formed above it. Wes stared in outright surprise. One of the figures was Jen, while the man she was hugging was...

"That's me!"

Trip shook his head and shut off the image. "No, that's Alex...Jen's fiancé." Another puzzle piece slid into place in Wes' mind. "He was the red ranger in the year 3000...and he was after Ransik...except..." Trip swallowed. "Ransik struck him down without mercy...and Alex was gone."

Wes fitted the last couple of pieces together and suddenly everything Jen had said and done in the last three days made complete sense. "Oh man... That's why..."

  
Trip just nodded. "You need to talk to her." Wes nodded slowly, already plotting out what to say. "You're the only one who can help us."

"Where is she?"

"Wesley?"

Wes froze. His father was looking for him -- that meant... Glancing at his watch, he saw it was almost nine o'clock.

"She's at the beach," Trip answered softly. "I'll see you there." Wes nodded. Trip glanced up at the terrace. "He's gone."

Wes nodded. "The beach. Right." But Trip had already vanished.

Wes waited a few moments more for his father to become totally absorbed in the meeting, then crept round to the garage to collect his bike and head out to the coast.

~*~

Neither Lucas nor Katie seemed altogether surprised at Wes' appearance at the beach when he finally arrived. He guessed that Trip had probably pre-warned them. Glancing around, Wes wondered what the debris that littered the area was from, then as his eyes fell on Jen, he shelved the query. Carefully, he crossed the beach until he reached her.

She was staring at her engagement ring and hadn't noticed his arrival. As far as Wes was concerned, that was fine with him -- it meant the conversation could be held on his terms, rather than hers.

"Jen."

She started and looked up. Wes didn't miss the look of hope in her eyes that faded, even as her gaze fell on him. "What do you want?"

"To tell you that...you were right." Jen just looked at him, her expression unreadable. Wes shrugged and ploughed on. "I've never had to fight for anything in my life...not the way you mean." Jen remained stone-faced. "But now I have something to fight **for." That got some kind of reaction from Jen, as some emotion flickered through her eyes, but Wes was unsure if that was a good sign or a bad one. "This is my home that Ransik wants to trash...I can't just let that happen." Jen said nothing. Wes nodded slightly. "I know about Alex." The gentle statement caused Jen's body to tense. "Unless Ransik is stopped, neither of us will have a future. Please, let me help you."**

"You're not Alex," Jen stated coldly.

"I know that."

"You're a civilian."

"I know how to fight and this is my home. This is something I can do."

Whether Jen had a reply to that Wes never knew as at that moment, Trip came over.

"Circuit's picked up signs of mutant DNA at the harbour," he informed them.

Wes wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but it clearly meant something to Jen as the expression on her face hardened. Without saying a word, she crossed to where Lucas, Katie and Trip were waiting and started to lead them in the direction of the harbour. Then suddenly, she stopped and turned back to Wes.

Wes tried to read the expression on her face but it was indecipherable. She stared at him, evaluating him -- Wes decided -- before reaching round to that unseen pocket to produce the morpher. She glanced down at it then back at Wes.

"One more chance." So saying, she lobbed the morpher to him.

Wes caught it easily and smiled, trying not to make the same mistake he made the first time she handed the device to him, but it was hard not to be excited. Jen's expression didn't lighten more than a fraction, but it was enough for Wes to realise she was fighting back a smile. Beside her, Trip and Katie both looked relieved. Even Lucas, whose expression also barely changed, seemed happier.

Wes placed the morpher on his wrist, as he had done two days earlier. Unlike the first time, there was no sudden surge of power; instead the background 'hum' just gently faded into being.

"Ready?" Jen called.

"Ready." And this time, Wes felt he was.

~*~

The battle was intense. Wes didn't have the chance to feel terrified, but when it was all over and the mutant -- Jetara, Jen said its name was -- was chrono-frozen again (the proper terms coming from the vast seas of data that morphing had provided him with), he realised that he was shaking. He watched as Jen held her Time Force badge over the miniature form, creating an instant chrono-capsule (again the term floating free from the info-dump) and hoped she wouldn't notice.

She straightened and turned back to face him and the other Rangers.

"Power down!"

This time, Wes followed her lead exactly. The demorph seemed to take away the worst of the shaking, but he could still feel the adrenaline coursing through his body.

"That's one down," Jen observed, patting the capsule.

Wes nodded. "I'm glad you caught him," he said quietly, stepping forward.

"**We caught him," Katie corrected. "We couldn't have done it without you."**

Wes was mildly surprised when Jen didn't contradict Katie. All the same, Wes stepped closer to Jen and detached the morpher from his wrist. Jen looked startled.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Don't you want it back?"

Jen shook her head. "No. You keep it."

Wes stared in stunned surprise. "Really?"

Jen smiled faintly. "Really." She gently patted him on the arm. "You've earned it." Wes felt the last of his self-doubts melt at this endorsement. "Besides," Jen added, crossing to where the rest of the team were standing, "we..." She hesitated. "We need you."

Wes could only stare in stunned silence. It had been what he had hoped for, but he was still surprised. At the same time he felt an incredible sense of relief. Then the moment was broken as Lucas started to smile, Trip grinned broadly and chuckled and Katie wrapped him in a bruising bear hug. Even Jen seemed to share in the delight.

Wes felt himself smile.

Maybe things would work out.

_TO BE CONTINUED..._


	3. Pause

Saban and company created the character – I'm just borrowing him for a while.

This is only short -- chapter four will have more action.

Grateful thanks go to Ecolea, Leathie and Ekat, without whom this would be all the poorer.

Feedback tells me how I'm doing -- glad you're enjoying it so far!

~*~

Identity -- Pause

__

From the journal of Wes Collins, June 5th 2001

Can four days change your life?

I didn't think so -- I was wrong.

This last four days have been incredible.

Four days ago, I knew who I was and where my life was going.

Then I met her.

And now I don't know anything any more.

Everything that made up the façade that the outside world saw has been stripped away.

But if you take that away, what are you left with?

I'm terrified.

But there's no going back, even if I wanted to.

This is something I have to do.

They need me...**she** needs me.

I can't let them down.

I won't let them down.

I hope.

__

TO BE CONTINUED


	4. Breakaway

Saban owns the characters and _most_ of the events. Any similarity between dialogue here and in the episode _A Parting of the Ways_ is purely coincidental and has come about thanks to the wonderful PRSW website, as run by sirSTACK.

I apologise in advance for any places where I've described the clock tower wrong -- as yet, I've seen no Time Force episodes beyond _Something to Fight For_ so I'm reliant on sirSTACK's episode summaries.

Beware, tis an episode interpretation ahead -- admittedly with a few of the plot holes exterminated.

Many thanks to Leathie, Ekat and Ecolea for being both a wonderful cheer squad and a marvellous sounding board...not to mention the occasional cattle prod!

Thank you for the feedback so far -- I'm glad your enjoying it.

~*~

Identity -- Breakaway

Two weeks passed by in a flash as far as Wes was concerned. Two weeks of living a double life. Being present in just enough meetings for his father to believe nothing had changed while helping the four Time Force officers with their quest to capture Ransik. To the latter end, one of the first things he did was find them somewhere to use as a more permanent base of operations.

That, Wes reflected, had been interesting. Their reaction to the clock tower, with its long stairway up, dusty main room and resident doves and pigeons had been less than enthusiastic, until Jen had seen the view from the balcony. Even then, Katie had been unsure -- but they were making it work, and it was now starting to resemble a home rather than a dusty attic. The odd jobs were also proving to be more than useful -- mutant attacks not withstanding.

Then there was what he'd learned in the last two weeks -- about Ransik mostly, but little bits, here and there, about his team-mates too. He just wished he knew a little more about where he fitted in. Because of his father, he couldn't join in on most of the odd jobs -- although even when he did help with them, he didn't seem to be much good for anything other than strictly grunt labour. _I don't feel like a proper member of the team,_ he decided. _I feel like a stand in because they had no choice._

"Something on your mind?"

Wes started out of his reverie, almost cracking the back of his head against the wall. The view from the balcony swam back into focus. Glancing round, he spotted Jen, leaning against the doorjamb. He smiled and turned back to the view.

"Ahh -- just thinkin'," he answered.

"About?" Jen prompted.

Wes wasn't quite ready to share his continuing self-doubt with someone as self-assured as Jen, so he fell back on the part of the truth he could share. "About how funny life can be some times...how it can some times throw you the most amazing curve ball."

He heard Jen walk further out onto the balcony. "You mean like becoming a ranger?"

Wes grinned and turned to her. "Exactly."

Jen returned the smile. "Well, I'm glad life's funny like that -- you're a **great** red ranger."

Wes was aware that his jaw had hinged open, but he didn't seem to be able to do anything about it. Jen smiled and turned to go back in. Wes finally managed to regain his self-possession as Jen walked through the doorway. He hopped down from his perch and followed her in.

"Really?" he asked. "You think I'm great?" Even as he said it, though, he realised just how insecure he felt...and how insecure it sounded.

Jen glanced over her shoulder. "Well...yeah -- you're pretty good."

Wes felt his stomach lurch. "Whoa...you said great -- not 'pretty good'."

Jen smirked. "Well...I meant...above average." Turning back to face him properly, her smirk widened. "Barely."

Wes knew -- at least logically -- that she was just kidding, but that didn't prevent his stomach from knotting up. He tried to match her joking, but as he echoed her last comment, he knew the attempt had failed dismally. _Since when did someone else's opinion matter so much to you anyway?_ he asked himself. _Since you met her,_ came the answer.

"Wes?" Jen sounded concerned.

"Sorry...ah..." Wes glanced at his watch. "Crap! Look at the time..." He started to head for the stairs.

  
"Wes?"

"Meeting!" Wes called over his shoulder. "I'm supposed to be at Biolab in twenty minutes...and I have to get home to change first."

"Oh... See you later, then?" Jen called.

"Yeah." _Providing dad doesn't spit roast me for being late...again._

With that, Wes sprinted down the stairs and out to the side alley where he'd parked his bike first thing that morning. As he pulled his helmet on and started the bike, he decided that some days just weren't worth getting out of bed for.

~*~

"Wesley, where have you been?" his father asked as Wes finally made it into the house. "On second thoughts," his father added, taking in Wes' clothing, "don't answer that just go and get changed."

"Sorry dad," Wes muttered, sprinting up the stairs, even as he spoke.

"This is important!" His father's parting shot floated up the stairs behind him.

_To you maybe -- not to me, and you won't listen when I tell you,_ Wes thought in annoyance.

About the only merit to his perpetual tardiness was that he had long since mastered the art of quick changes. It meant that within five minutes, he was dressed in pressed slacks, a wine coloured shirt, matching necktie and navy blue blazer.

"Wesley!"

Wes groaned. "Yes, dad."

With a final check on his clothing, Wes left his bedroom at a slightly more sedate pace than he had entered it, and headed back downstairs.

"...I swear I don't know what he gets up to, Phillips," his father was muttering as Wes came back down the stairs.

For a second, Wes was tempted to enlighten his father -- then he changed his mind. Chances were if his father knew about his being a power ranger he'd find some way to prevent it.

"Ah. At last. Ready?" his father asked, finally spotting him on the stairs.

"Yeah."

His father harrumphed a little at the lack of enthusiasm, but nevertheless led the way out to the limousine. Wes wondered distantly if the other rangers would hate him so very much if he wished for a mutant attack.

~*~

The meeting went surprisingly well -- at least from Wes' point of view. It was over relatively quickly and it was about something that he could contribute on, which meant that his attention didn't wander to more interesting lines of thought. Judging by the expression on his father's face, though, it had not gone well enough.

"Wesley," his father began as they headed back towards the limousine, "I know Harvard was a good school, but there is **no** substitute for experience." Wes waited for the other shoe to drop. "Which is why..."

But Wes never got to hear the rest of the sentence. There was a loud clunk as something hit the hood of the limousine -- just barely missing Phillips, who was waiting beside the car -- and ultimately landed at his father's feet.

"What the...?" His father bent over and picked the object up. It was a baseball.

Wes had been vaguely aware of a group of kids playing baseball in the park opposite and a quick glance at them now all standing in a huddle told him this was where the ball had come from. He watched as one of the kids was pushed from the huddle and propelled in the direction of the limousine.

"Where did this come from?" his father muttered.

"Just some kids playing baseball," Wes answered, instantly feeling a pang of jealousy -- he'd never been allowed to hang out in the park and play baseball, it was too 'common'. Besides -- being at boarding school didn't really give you the opportunity to.

"Excuse me, mister," began the kid who had been nominated to reclaim the ball. "Really sorry...sir...but..."

"Is this yours?"

The last time Wes had heard his father use that tone of voice had been some ten years earlier when he had attempted to sneak out and go to the carnival. That particular lecture had lodged in Wes' mind for years afterwards -- and it had been the last time he had tried to disobey his father. Wes smiled faintly -- at least it had been until he'd met Jen.

"'M sorry sir!" the kid was stammering. "C...can we ha...have our b...ball back, p...please?"

"You know what I think?" Wes heard his father reply. "I think I'm going to keep this."

Wes could barely believe what his father had just said. "But..."

His father cut off Wes' protest. "Let that be a lesson to you," he stated, glaring at the kid.

The kid turned tail and ran. Wes' father sighed in disgust and muttered something unintelligible. Wes was too appalled to even try and work it out.

  
"Dad he was just a kid," Wes finally said.

"He's just a kid who's learned a valuable lesson," his father retorted. "I'll see you at dinner." Before Wes could say anything else, his father handed him the baseball. "And throw this in the trash."

Wes just stared as his father climbed into the limousine. Phillips slowly shook his head as if to say 'I wouldn't even bother arguing', before getting into the drivers seat and driving away, leaving Wes standing on the sidewalk.

_Screw this. No way am I going to be like him._ He trotted across the street and into the park.

"Oh man -- here comes the other one," muttered the kid his father had just castigated.

"Hey, kid," Wes called, pretending he hadn't heard the comment.

"Dija forget to kick me?" the kid retorted.

Wes smiled faintly. "Think this is yours," he replied, and tossed the stunned kid the offending baseball. "Hit a hommer."

There was a momentary stunned silence, then the kids all cheered for the return of the ball. Wes smiled and turned to walk away.

"Hey, mister?" the kid called. Wes turned back. "Thanks."

Wes smiled again and headed away. Behind him, he heard the baseball game start up again. He just wished he felt as carefree as the kids playing ball. As he walked through the park, he found his mind returning to the train of thought that Jen had derailed earlier in the day.

Where did he fit in? After his father's reaction to the baseball 'incident', he was even less sure it was with his father, working in -- running -- Biolab. While technically he knew about running a business -- and between his time at Harvard and his father's constant instruction he certainly knew that -- it was not something that called to him. It never had done -- no matter how much he might have liked it to when he was a kid. But if he didn't do that...left his father's shadow, what **did** he do?

Jerking him out of the troubled thoughts, his morpher bleeped, and Jen's hologram appeared. "Wes, we've got trouble," she began. "Circuit's picked up mutant activity on the old highway."

"It never rains..." Wes muttered softly.

"What?"

"Sorry -- I'll meet you there," Wes answered.

"Right." Jen nodded and cut the connection.

Wes smiled grimly -- at least this would keep him from wondering where his life was going.

~*~

The more the day progressed, the surer Wes was that he should never have got out of bed. The mutant -- Tenticlaw, according to Circuit -- had kidnapped a busload of school children and was holding them to ransom. The frustrating thing was how easily the mutant had evaded them. He had been within their sights and then...he had got away. With the kids.

Wes looked at the ransom note again and groaned. Ten million dollars...

"We can't get that kinda money by three p.m.!" Katie was objecting. "And we don't know where he took the kids."

Wes pulled a face; glad no-one could see it beneath his helmet. "We can't but I can."

Four heads whipped round and Wes could feel their combined stare. "Excuse me?" said Lucas.

Wes shrugged. "What I said." He turned and headed towards his vector cycle.

"Wes? Where are you going?" Trip asked.

Wes paused and glanced back. "You guys try and find the kids...leave the money to me."

Surprisingly, Jen just nodded. "You got it. Guys?"

She led the other Rangers off along the highway, in the direction the bus had been travelling, leaving Wes to head in the other direction. Back home. To the one person who could conceivably be able to produce ten million dollars in a little over three hours.

~*~

"No."

Wes stared at his father. "But dad..."

"No -- and I mean it. It should be a matter for the police." His father frowned. "And I don't even want to know how you've become involved in this..."

"But **dad**..."

"Wesley, it is none of my concern. It should be none of yours. That is my final word on the matter." His father turned and started to head back to the conference room. "If you'll excuse me -- I have a business deal to conclude."

Wes stared at his father's retreating back, the distance between them growing both literally and metaphorically by the second. Overriding the despair at not getting the ransom money was a real sense of disappointment and disillusionment.

"Master Wesley?" Wes jumped and found Phillips looking at him in concern. "Is there something you need?"

Wes sighed. "Yeah. But I'm not gonna get it here." Phillips nodded, unsurprised. "I always figured I'd..." Wes shrugged. "Follow in his footsteps. Now I'm..."

"Not so sure?" Phillips suggested.

"Major understatement," Wes admitted. "It's...I don't know...it's like I've never really known him before. And now I do..." Wes left the rest of the sentence hang unsaid.

Phillips nodded. "You're thinking that you might like to make your own footsteps?"

"Exactly."

Phillips smiled. "Only you can decide that, Master Wesley. Follow your heart -- you'll do what's right."

Wes returned the smile. "Thanks Phillips."

Phillips smiled again, and continued on his way towards the conference room. Wes nodded to himself. For the first time in two weeks, his thoughts had cleared: He knew what to do. And the newfound clarity helped him find a solution to the ransom money too.

"Just need the right sized briefcase..."

~*~

Wes waited in the shade of one of the buildings that overlooked the pickup point. Beside him was a silver briefcase. There was no sign of anyone -- much less mutants. A glance at his watch told him that there was still ten minutes before the appointed meeting time. Suddenly his morpher bleeped.

"Wes?" Appearing over his morpher was a holograph of Jen's morphed head.

  
"I read you Jen."

"We've found the kids -- we're just moving into position."

Wes nodded. "Got it."

"Are you all set?"

Wes smiled. "Yeah -- no problems."

"Good." Jen nodded her head once and cut the connection.

Wes glanced at his watch once more. Five minutes. Showtime. With another glance around the area to make sure he was unobserved, he morphed, picked up the briefcase and walked forward.

Almost the instant he had left the shade, Nadira, Gluto and a large number of Cyclobots teleported in. The Cyclobots immediately swarmed and surrounded Wes.

"What a **good** little soldier," Nadira cooed. "I do like it when people do what they're told." Wes said nothing. "Now give me the money," she ordered.

Mindful of the cyclosabres aimed at him, Wes crouched down and slid the briefcase across the paving to the pink-haired mutant. As Nadira picked the case up, Wes straightened.

"I've kept my side of the deal," he stated.

Nadira glared and thrust the case at a nearby Cyclobot. "Open it!" The Cyclobot complied.

Wes watched as Nadira's face lit up on seeing the contents.

"Look at all dat cash!" Gluto exclaimed.

"You have your money," said Wes. "Let the kids go."

"Those annoying urchins?" Nadira queried and snapped her fingers. Gluto handed her a leopard print cell phone. She pressed a key. "Tentaclaw?" There was a silence as Wes presumed Tentaclaw replied. "**Destroy** the kids."

At the back of his mind, Wes had been expecting something like this. _I hope Jen and the guys were ready,_ he thought as the Cyclobots surged in. As he fought his way through the robo-drones, he was aware of Nadira and Gluto starting to leave with the ransom. _Oh no you don't..._

Kicking the Cyclobot in front of him, Wes started forward. A Cyclobot grabbed at him. He reversed the grip and before the Cyclobot could do anything, he used it as a springboard. He vaulted over the rest of the robots hemming him in, calling one of his Chrono-sabres into being as he did so.

Twisting in mid-air, Wes brought the sword to bear as he came down, striking out at both Gluto and Nadira. The strike didn't connect -- but it wasn't designed to. As Nadira and Gluto ducked away from the flashing blade, she dropped the briefcase.

"I'll take that!"

Wes grabbed the case and sprinted for his parked vector cycle, leaving Nadira to howl. A couple of enterprising Cyclobots tried to follow him, but two swift kicks dispatched them. _Now for Tentaclaw..._

~*~

All it took was a quick call to Circuit and a brief vector cycle journey for Wes to reach Tentaclaw's location. It took even less time for him to realise that he needed to do something drastic -- the other rangers were heavily outnumbered by a horde of Cyclobots, and it looked as if Tentaclaw was preparing to carry out Nadira's command. The one thing that puzzled him was why the kids hadn't moved. There didn't seem to be...

Even as he was thinking that, the heads-up display on his visor changed to show EM emissions and the reason why the kids were still there lit up like a Christmas tree. There was some kind of force field in place and judging from its shape there had to be some kind of generator at the top. And there it was -- a small cylinder, right at the apex of the dome.

There was only going to be one way to do this -- and only one shot at it. _What the hey -- you only live once._ Wes gunned the vector cycle and sped towards the warehouse. He was aware that everyone -- including Tentaclaw -- turned at the noise, but he concentrated on his task.

Twenty yards. Fifteen. Ten. Five.

Five yards away from the force field, Wes prepared. He had done this once before -- or this kind of thing, at any rate. But the last time, all that had been at stake had been his own neck and pride. This time it mattered.

Four yards. Three. Two.

He jumped from the cycle -- sending the machine crashing into Tentaclaw -- reaching with every muscle and sinew for the force field generator. As he strained for the height, he called forth a Chrono-sabre, stretching out with that too. He wasn't going to make it. He was going to miss. He was going to...

The point of the sabre just clipped the generator as he started to fall. There was a shower of sparks and the force field fizzled out. For a second, Wes plummeted as the relief from succeeding overrode every other sense, then the very real danger of breaking his neck impinged on his thoughts. He refused to panic and instead recalled what one of his martial arts teachers had taught him: Falling hurts a lot less if you can land on your feet.

Wes tucked into a mid-air summersault and landed -- a little heavily, but on his feet.

"Blasted **ranger**!" Tentaclaw hissed, trying to untangle himself from the vector cycle. "I will get you!"

Wes grinned -- even once Tentaclaw got free from that, Jen and Trip had both managed to get free from their Cyclobots and would keep the mutant busy while the kids escaped. He turned his attention from the angry mutant to the kids and their bus driver.

"Is everyone OK?" Wes asked.

"Yeah -- thanks to you," the driver answered, turning so that Wes could remove the binding that Tentaclaw had placed around his wrists.

Wes didn't know how to respond to the driver's comments. Instead, he cut away the bindings and said, "OK -- your bus is just outside. Get to safety."

"Thank you!"

Wes watched as the kids and the driver all left at top speed.

"We could use your help here," Katie called, dragging Wes' thoughts away from the kids and back to the battle.

"You got it."

~*~

"What I want to know," Katie began as they trooped into the clock tower attic after defeating Tentaclaw, "is how you got the reward money so fast."

Wes grinned, patted the silver briefcase that he was still carrying and said nothing.

"From your dad?" Jen guessed.

Wes felt his smile fade at the suggestion. "No -- I..." Wes shrugged and placed the case down on the table. "See for yourselves." So saying, he flipped the catches and opened the lid to reveal what looked like ten million dollars.

Lucas was the first to reach for a bundle of notes. "Wait a second!"

Lucas' surprised exclamation prompted Katie, Trip and Jen to all grab a bundle. Wes watched as they all realised that only top note was a real. The rest were hastily cut up pieces of plain paper, and beneath those top bundles was a mass of shredded newspaper.

"You bluffed Nadira?!" Jen was incredulous.

Wes shrugged. "I had to do something."

"I thought you were going to get the money from your father!"

"Yeah. Well." Wes shrugged.

"That was a stupid risk, Wes -- this isn't..."

"A game, I know." If anything, Wes decided, this dressing down from Jen hurt more than the first time she'd accused him of playing. "Look, I know it was a stupid thing to do..."

"Yes," Jen agreed. "Yes it was. But..." She smiled. "You got away with it."

Before Wes could process the thought that Jen wasn't actually steamed, Katie looked back at the case. "There's still five hundred dollars here -- where'd that come from?" she asked.

"It can't have been your dad," Jen mused. "And I'm betting you didn't steal it."

Wes felt a spurt of anger at even the vague insinuation that it might have been stolen, which he tried to swallow back.

"Which means..." Jen trailed off and stared at Wes. "It's yours, isn't it?"

Wes felt uncomfortable under the full force of her glare. "Yeah," he finally admitted.

"You were willing," Katie began, "to give up five hundred dollars **and** risk Nadira catching your bluff for those kids?"

Wes shrugged, feeling more and more uncomfortable. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

Trip grinned broadly. "It was." Wes got the feeling there was an 'I told you so' air about the Xybrian's words, but couldn't for the life of him work out why.

"Absolutely," Lucas agreed. "Right, Jen?"

"Hmm...yeah." Jen's reply was distracted and distant.

Wes felt his heart plummet towards his shoes. "Well...I gotta get going..."

"What about the money?" Katie asked as Wes turned towards the stairs.

"Keep it."

Wes slowly stumped down the stairs wondering just what he'd done to upset Jen now. He was almost through the odd jobs shop at the base of the tower when a hand came down on his shoulder. He started and looked round -- only to find Jen standing behind him.

"Before you go," she began, then stopped and nervously fiddled with her engagement ring. "There's ah..." She sighed. "I'm sorry."

Wes blinked. They were comfortably the last words he'd expected to hear from Jen and they threw Wes' whole train of thought for a loop. All he could manage was a stunned 'what?'

Jen sighed again. "I'm sorry for what I said...how I judged you. The man I thought you were wouldn't have done what you did today." She chewed her lip and added, "And you are a **great** ranger." Then she turned tail and sprinted back up the stairs before Wes could say anything.

For the longest time, Wes just stared after her. Gradually her words sank in and he smiled. Most of the worry that he'd been carrying around for two weeks suddenly evaporated. The nebulous feeling of being 'just' a stand in faded away in the light of a few simple words.

Smiling, he turned and headed out of the shop -- now to deal with the rest.

~*~

"Wesley, you're late. You know how I feel about punctuality," his father stated, when Wes finally made an appearance in the dining room.

"You're right about me being late," Wes agreed. "But it's not for dinner."

"I **beg** your pardon?"

"You can keep your business and your plans."

"Wesley? What do you mean?"

Wes smiled faintly -- his father looked startled and concerned. "I'm going to make my **own** future now."

"You...you're leaving? After all I've done for you?"

"I'm not a business man and we both know it," he answered. Then before his father could say anything more, Wes picked up the duffle bag he'd already packed, turned and headed out of the dining room.

"Master Wesley?" Phillips appeared as Wes reached the front door. "You're really going?"

Wes nodded. "Thanks, Phillips -- for everything."

Phillips just smiled and nodded. "Good luck, Master Wesley."

Wes grinned and slipped out of the front door, knowing that he'd done the right thing.

~*~

Wes quietly climbed up the clock tower steps, wondering how he was going to be received. He didn't think the other four rangers would toss him out on his ass, but...then again, space was at a premium. Still -- it didn't hurt to try. As he reached the top of the stairs, he heard Jen call,

"Popcorn!"

Wes entered the attic as she set the bowl down. He watched for a few moments, waiting for people to notice his arrival.

"Wes?" Lucas was the first to spot him.

"Hi," Wes answered, a little tentatively. "I was...uh...wondering if you might have room for one more."

Trip and Katie both smiled reassuringly, but it didn't help prevent Wes from feeling nervous.

"What do you think, guys?" Jen asked.

"Say yes!" contributed Circuit, the mechanical owl, who was perched on the edge of the table, flapping his wings excitedly.

Wes watched as Jen glanced from Katie, to Trip to Lucas before slowly turning to face him. She extended a hand.

"Welcome home, Wes."

And for the first time in two weeks, Wes felt he **was** home.

TO BE CONTINUED 


	5. Long Night

The characters aren't mine and the mentioned events aren't mine either (they belong to Saban et al), no money made, honest!

Again, many thanks to sirSTACK and the PRSW website

Also huge thanks to Ekat for nitpicking, to Ecolea for plot bashing and to Leathie for helping me with the psychology of this section. You guys are the greatest bunch of betas a writer could wish for.

This chapter's very short -- bear with me, there is a huge chapter with lots of action on the horizon. Promise!

This is a 'what you didn't see' for _Jen's Revenge_

Please feedback -- it lets me know how I'm doing; glad you're enjoying it

~*~

Identity -- Long Night

Wes was confused.

There was nothing especially new about that -- most of the last three weeks had passed in some sort of confusion or other. Nor was the general source of the confusion anything different; like everything else that had happened in the last three weeks, Jen was at the centre of it all. No. The difference stemmed from what Jen had done.

He glanced back through the balcony door to see Trip and Katie administering medical care to Jen's unconscious form and shook his head.

She'd gone up against Ransik and Fatcatfish alone.

A tiny part of him was annoyed that she hadn't trusted someone with what she'd planned. Wes knew she didn't exactly like him enough for her to have told him -- but she could have told Lucas. Lucas was her second in command! The rest of him was impressed. It was the sort of stunt that he would have pulled once upon a time. Oh, not for Jen's reasons, but it was definitely something he could have seen himself doing. A small piece of rebellion against his father's rules and plans.

That part of it was easily dealt with. No, the real source of his present state of confusion came from his own reactions to what they'd found in the warehouse. The instant flash of panic at the sight of Jen's prone form. The sudden, if admittedly brief, spurt of fear that she might be dead. He'd never reacted like that to anything before. OK, he'd never been faced with the prospect of a friend being dead before, but he was fairly sure he wouldn't have reacted quite like that before, or about anyone else, for that matter, which left him with the deceptively simple question: Why?

Wes frowned and stared up at the few visible stars.

Part of the answer, he suspected, was out of some desire to thank Jen for what she had done for him. Not only had she offered him an escape route away from what his father had wanted for him, she'd made him **think**. Made him realise once and for all who he didn't want to be...what he didn't want to do. OK, so her methods had sucked and the whole process had been painful -- not to mention mildly humiliating -- but it had worked. He wasn't entirely sure **who** he was becoming, but he definitely liked what he was beginning to see in himself.

But that wasn't all of it.

There was something he was missing.

"Wes?"

At Trip's call, Wes started and turned to find the Xybrian stood just inside the door.

"She'll be OK, you know," Trip commented.

"I know."

"It's not your fault."

Wes stared at Trip. "What?"

Trip gave a half smile. "You feel guilty that you didn't realise what she was planning."

"I don't."

But even as Wes protested his innocence of the charge, he wondered if there was some feeling of guilt. No. That was ridiculous...except... Hadn't Jen mentioned that she and Alex had some history with Fatcatfish? And hadn't she already lost Alex to Ransik? Wasn't it possible she was trying to protect him because of Alex?

Wes grimaced. It was possible...no...probable. It was definitely something Jen would do. That brought a spurt of anger. Who was she that she thought he needed protecting? She was still treating him as if he was Alex...or worse, still treating him like a pariah because of who he looked like.

Trip just nodded, as if he guessed Wes' train of thought, which, given his Xybrian origins, was more than likely.

"And you feel guilty because she got hurt and you couldn't protect her," Trip continued.

"What?! Me? Protect Jen??? She'd kick my butt from now 'till next Tuesday if I suggested it."

Trip's half smile reappeared. "So? Who said love was logical?"

And with that, the Xybrian turned and headed back into the attic, leaving Wes staring, slack jawed.

Love?

No. He couldn't be in love.

There were hundreds of reasons for this not to be love.

Of course, the rational side of his mind argued, if he were to be in love, it would at least explain Jen's somewhat puzzling ability to hurt him with the barest word. It would explain why he craved her approval. It would explain why he was so scared in the warehouse. It would...

_No! I'm not in love. I can't be in love. How can you fall in love with someone you barely know?_

Wes turned his gaze back to the night sky and sighed. The first fingers of dawn were visible on the Eastern horizon. Just how long had he spent out here thinking anyway? Jen would probably kill him for not getting enough rest.

He turned to head back into the attic to get a little more sleep, but as he did so, his eyes fell on where Jen was lying, presumably asleep now rather than unconscious. _She's certainly what I'd like in a woman,_ he admitted. _But I'm not going to compete with the ghost of Alex._

_TO BE CONTINUED_


	6. Old Friend, New Problem

None of the characters belong to me, and I really shouldn't lay claim to the events either, being as I'm not the all-powerful Saban.

Any and all similarities between my dialogue/action and _World's Apart_ have come about thanks to sirSTACK and PRSW -- please forgive any errors in description or location; I haven't seen this episode yet (although I am working on that!).

This is an episode interpretation -- with a few plot holes filled and a couple of scenes added.

Muchos gracias to Ekat and her boss Glenn for the assorted help they've given me on this chapter, and for the fact that they put up with me asking (often very) silly questions about American culture and human biology. (Strange combination, I know!) Many, many thanks also go to Leathie and Ecolea for chivvying, shoulder tapping and cattle prodding, not to mention the odd bit of advice too! You guys are a writer's dream!

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing, and I'm glad you guys are enjoying it.

~*~

Identity -- Old Friend, New Problem

There were a large number of things that Wes had imagined himself doing in his life, but he had to admit that collecting garbage -- even getting paid to collect garbage -- had not featured anywhere in those imaginings. Of course, neither had being a ranger and nor had knowing people from a thousand years into the future, fighting mutants on an almost daily basis or anything else that had been going on in his life recently. Not that Wes was complaining!

As he slung the bag he had just filled into a dumpster, Wes realised he was actually having fun.

"What?" Lucas groused irritably.

"Huh?" Wes looked round.

"What are you smiling for?" Lucas asked.

"I just..." Wes shrugged -- he hadn't noticed he'd been smiling.

Lucas chuckled wryly and shook his head. "I went through two years of training and for what? To come back to 2001 and pick up garbage."

When Lucas put it that way, Wes took his point. "Look on the bright side," he answered, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Think about what we could have been doing instead."

There was a brief moment of puzzlement on Lucas' face before understanding swept across his face. Up until Trip had come bounding into the attic with this job, Lucas, Katie and Wes had all been listening to Jen dissect what had gone wrong with their last mutant battle, and it had been about as much fun as having a root canal job done.

"Good point," Lucas agreed.

"And think of all the food we'll be able to afford," Wes added.

Lucas plastered on a fake smile. "Garbage collecting -- gotta love it!"

"Hey, stop goofing off you two," Trip chided.

Lucas gave Trip a mock salute. "Yes sir, mister supervisor sir."

Wes grinned as Trip and Lucas started bickering, but as he turned to head back into the warehouse to collect more garbage, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye and stopped dead.

Pulling to a halt some five yards away was a large, black limousine. Wes' grin froze then faded as he recognised the car -- and the man who climbed out of the passenger compartment.

"Hi dad." Behind him, he was aware of the other rangers all stopping and looking, but Wes ignored them, concentrating instead on what his father's reaction would be.

"So this is what you left home for," his father replied, taking a couple of steps forward and curling his lip in disgust. "To clean up other people's trash?"

Inwardly, Wes flinched at the contempt. Outwardly, he shrugged but said nothing.

"He does more than that!" Trip exclaimed hotly.

His father seemed somewhat taken aback by the outburst, at least he did until his gaze actually fell on the source. Wes watched as his father's face creased in disgust as he clearly took in Trip's punkish-looking green hair.

Shaking his head, his father turned and headed back to the limousine. Suddenly he stopped and glanced over his shoulder. "I couldn't be more disappointed."

As his father climbed back into the limousine, Wes realised he was grinding his teeth. He had known his father wouldn't like what he was doing with his life now but he had never expected this. He wasn't sure whether he was angry or frustrated. Cutting through the tumult of emotion, Wes realised someone was gently squeezing his shoulder. Glancing round, he realised that the other rangers had joined him -- that didn't surprise him. What did surprise him was the source of the comforting gesture: Jen. _Huh?_ But he didn't have time to wonder about that as the sudden noise of blaster fire pulled them all from silent contemplation.

"What the...?" exclaimed Katie.

"That way!" Jen pointed.

Abandoning the garbage, the five of them headed in the direction of the blaster fire. Wes wondered what they were going to find. Rounding the corner, they skidded to a halt as they found the source of the battle. On the one side of the plaza was Nadira, along with a gang of cyclobots. On the other side were about twenty men, all uniformed and heavily armed, with their blasters trained on Nadira.

Wes moved to step forward, but Jen held up a hand.

"Wait," she murmured quietly. "We don't know what's going on here."

Wes nodded faintly and stopped.

"How **dare** you!" Nadira was screeching. "How **DARE** you spoil my shopping spree!"

She took a few steps forward, heading for the man who appeared to be in charge of the black uniformed troops.

"Halt!" he commanded.

"Nobody tells **me** when to stop!" Nadira responded.

The commander merely shrugged. "Fire!"

Wes and the other rangers watched as the troops unloaded shot after shot into Nadira's entourage. She managed to dodge the blasts, but the cyclobots were not so lucky. Within minutes, they had all been reduced to so much scrap metal.

"You'll **PAY** for this!" Nadira screamed, glaring round the plaza at the troops. In a puff of white and pink energy, she vanished.

"Who **are** they?" Lucas wondered.

"Search me," Wes answered with a shrug.

Whoever they were, they were certainly efficient, Wes noted. Within minutes of Nadira's disappearance, they had the remains of the Cyclobots cleared away and secure.

"Let's move **out**," the commander called.

Promptly, the assorted troops headed towards four black SUVs.

"Where are they from?" Trip wondered.

"I have no idea," Wes admitted. "I've never seen 'em bef...holy shit."

"Excuse me?" Jen prompted.

Wes ignored her and stepped forward as one of the black uniformed troops walked over. As the trooper neared, Wes shook his head in amazement.

The trooper grinned laconically. "Long time, no see, Wes," he drawled.

There were four snorts of astonishment from behind him, which Wes ignored. "Eric!" He extended a hand and continued, "How are you? Geez...what are you doing here?"

Eric's grin faded into a smirk as he ignored the proffered hand and settled into an 'at ease' position. Wes slowly lowered his hand and tried not to look as hurt as he felt.

"I'm with the Silver Guardians," Eric explained, casually inclining his head in the direction of the SUVs. "We protect this city now." Eric paused and looked Wes up and down before adding, "And you?"

"I'm just..."

"Let's move **out**," the Silver Guardians' commander called.

Eric shrugged. "Gotta go -- I have real work to do." Turning, Eric casually added, "See ya round."

Wes stared after Eric as he climbed into the last remaining SUV.

  
"Boy!" Katie exclaimed. "That guy's got more attitude than you, Lucas!" Lucas snickered in response.

"Who was that guy?" Trip asked.

Wes slowly turned to face the other rangers. "That's Eric."

"We guessed that part," Jen retorted.

Wes smiled faintly. "Sorry... He and I went to school together."

"Nice guy," Katie murmured.

Wes ignored the comment.

"We'll talk later," Jen promised. 

__

Can't wait, Wes thought sourly.

"Right now, we have a job to finish."

As Jen led them back to the warehouse where they had been collecting the garbage Wes couldn't help but wonder if this day was going to get any worse.

~*~

An hour later and Wes realised that yes, of course things could get worse. Having completed (and been paid for) their garbage collection services, they had headed back to the clock tower, only to find Circuit waiting agitatedly for their return. The mechanical owl had immediately directed their attention to the holo-screen, where somehow (and had Wes wanted to know, Trip would have undoubtedly explained it) it was showing the live television feed of a press conference.

His dad's press conference.

About his dad's Silver Guardians.

"My Silver Guardians," Wes heard him say, "have averted another robbery today. I'm sure the entire city sleeps better, knowing that they're looking out for us."

Wes could feel Jen staring at him. _She's probably wondering if I knew about this,_ Wes mused. _And the way today's gone so far; she won't believe me when I tell her I didn't._

"Mr Collins, is it true that your Silver Guardians only protect clients who **pay** for their services?" asked one of the reporters at the press conference.

Although his father didn't answer the question, Wes didn't need to hear the answer to know that the answer was yes.

"What about the Time Force Rangers?" asked another reporter.

Wes watched his father's expression turn smug. "The rangers can't be everywhere, now can they?"

"So the Silver Guardians are one of your father's business ventures?" Katie asked, drawing Wes' attention away from the press conference.

Wes shrugged. "Looks that way."

"Wait..." Lucas shook his head. "First the Raimei tank, now **this**?" and he jerked a thumb in the direction of the holo-screen.

"Believe me," Wes muttered, "I'm as confused as you guys."

Trip glanced back at the continuing press conference. "But your dad's helping to protect the city -- that's got to be a good thing. Right?"

"No. No it isn't," Wes snapped, pacing across to the holo-screen. "He doesn't **care** about this city -- he's just in it for the money." And with that, he stabbed the off switch, silencing the press conference.

"I know you and your father have had your differences," Jen began, "but do you really think he's that greedy?"

Wes groaned and looked at Jen. "You heard the report."

"He didn't say yes they were only protecting those who paid," Lucas commented.

"And he didn't say no either. Trust me, that's what he's doing." Wes groaned again. "That's all he cares about -- money. Even I just became another business plan for him. I can't believe I wanted to be **like** him."

Wes started for the door, intending to go out and find somewhere quiet to try and bring his frustration and anger back under control.

"Well your old friend Eric's working for him now," Lucas commented.

Wes froze in his tracks, glad that none of them could see his wince at Lucas' phrase. "We weren't **exactly** friends," he admitted.

"What do you mean?" Trip asked.

Wes slowly turned around to face the other rangers. "Eric didn't really 'do' friends."

Jen raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Wes leaned against a convenient roof support and looked at the other rangers. "The school we went to was kinda...exclusive," Wes explained. "Expensive too, I guess. I went there for..." Wes shrugged. "A long time. I started there in sixth grade and went right through to graduation. The other kids there were...kinda shallow...spoiled... Bratty. If you didn't fit in to their worldview you didn't exist. Eric joined the place in ninth grade, on a scholarship.

"Because we both came from the same place, I got asked to show him around...show him the ropes, and in the first couple of weeks, he was a really nice guy and we got on pretty well... And then something happened. I don't know what -- it happened on a weekend where I'd gone home -- but I can take a flying guess.

"It was almost like someone flipped a switch. He..." Wes shrugged. "He closed down. Started acting like the whole school was out to get him...like he had to prove himself to everyone... And then he quit altogether."

"I see," Jen murmured.

Wes got the impression that she saw a lot more than he'd just said.

"So what happened then?" Katie asked

Wes shrugged again. "Nothing -- I didn't see him again until today."

For a second, no-one said anything. Wes started to push away from the post, intending still to find somewhere quiet to calm down, but Circuit's voice suddenly cut across the silence.

"Mutant activity detected down town!"

"Let's go!" Jen responded, heading for the stairs.

Wes followed on last, smiling wryly. If he couldn't calm down peacefully, at least he could work his annoyance out on some cyclobots and whichever mutant Ransik had decided to use today.

~*~

In an unexpected quiet moment, Wes ruefully decided that since everything else had gone so badly this day, why shouldn't the fight? Univolt -- according to Circuit -- was not a run of the mill mutant, but was from something called the X-Vault. Wes was not entirely certain he knew what that meant, but he suspected it translated as super strong, super evil mutants.

And Univolt was certainly that.

And just when things couldn't get any worse, they promptly did: The Silver Guardians arrived.

"Ooh man...I can't believe he sent them," Wes muttered. "They **don't** know what they're up against."

"And nor do you, puny ranger!" Univolt screamed, unleashing a barrage of laser blasts from his rifle.

Most of the shots went wide but two connected. One hit Wes on the shoulder while the other collided with his chest. Their combined force sent him staggering back a pace and he didn't see the swing of Univolt's rifle until the butt-end connected with the side of his head. The blow spun him around and sent him sprawling on the ground.

Wes' ears rang and he saw stars. For a couple of seconds he wondered if was actually going to black out. Finally the ringing died to a manageable level and the stars cleared from his vision, in time for him to see the Silver Guardians attempt to destroy Univolt with their blasters.

He tried to get to his feet to stop them, but it was too late. The Silver Guardians fired. Univolt laughed...and redirected the entire power of the blast back on the unsuspecting troops, and Univolt's aim was unerring. Wes could only watch in total horror as every Silver Guardian was hit and injured.

Univolt laughed. "See ya, soldier," he yelled, and aimed his rifle at the Silver Guardian's leader who had given the fateful command.

"NO!"

Wes found himself moving before he'd consciously realised the shout had been his. His only thought was to prevent Univolt from committing murder. There was no plan behind his actions; just the instinct to act that had ruled his deeds ever since his first meeting with Jen.

Time seemed to slow. Milliseconds became hours as far as Wes was concerned. He felt hyperaware of what Univolt was doing. He could see the injured Silver Guardian commander lying on the ground, groaning. He could see Univolt's finger tightening on the trigger. He could see the distance narrowing but not narrowing fast enough. He wasn't going to make it. Cramped muscles couldn't move any faster.

They had to. **He** had to.

There was a burst of adrenaline. He found the extra speed. Univolt squeezed the trigger. Wes dived...

...and took the entire brunt of rifle fire direct to the chest.

The laser fire seemed to freeze him in mid-air; pinning him in position as more and more energy surged into him. There was an explosion. And a scream. The beam cut out and he crashed to the ground, and then the pain hit.

~*~

The next thing Wes was aware of was the close proximity of someone else. It took a second or two for the cotton wool that seemed to be filling his mind to clear enough for him to remember what had happened. But as the memories cleared, so returned the pain.

"Are... Are you OK?"

It took another couple of seconds for Wes to realise that the voice didn't belong to any of his team-mates -- or, more fortunately, Univolt. What he couldn't believe was who his ears were telling him it **did** belong to. Painfully, he shifted so that he could confirm it. That was when he realised that the visor of his helmet had shattered at some point. There was a long, drawn out moment where Wes found himself staring eye to eye with Eric.

"Wes?!"

Wes just stared, unable to pull enough coherence together to answer.

"Wes?"

__

Musta hit m'head harder'n I thought...Eric sounds worried! Wes found himself thinking. The pain seemed to be abating a little, so he cautiously started to try and push himself up off the ground. Each motion brought fresh starbursts of pain in abused muscles but he gritted his teeth and force himself through it. As more awareness came back to him, he realised that Univolt was still loose, and still a threat.

"Wesley?!"

For a second, Wes thought he'd imagined that shout, but as he finally reached his feet, swaying a little but otherwise staying upright, he spotted his father approaching. It crossed his mind to wonder just what his father had been doing to be anywhere near this mess, but he couldn't bring himself to actually care. He took a few seconds to judge the direction of the battle and started to head in that direction.

"Wes, wait!"

Now Wes **knew** he was hearing things. Eric did sound worried. A glance in Eric's direction revealed that he looked worried too. Turning back, Wes found himself face to face with his father.

"Wesley, what is the meaning of this?" his father asked. "**You're** a Time Force Ranger?"

The incredulity in his father's voice hurt. Wes shrugged stiffly. "I wanted to tell you but...I couldn't." He shrugged again and glanced at the assorted Silver Guardians still present on the scene, the walking wounded.

"You're hurt."

The inane statement snagged Wes' temper, and all of the day's irritations suddenly bubbled forth. "You **don't** know what you're getting into...what you're up against here. People are getting **hurt** and all because you want more money. How much is enough? What will it take?"

His father shook his head. Anger, surprise and fear warred in his father's expression. "No...that's not it at all! You don't understand."

"Don't I?" Wes shot back.

"I...I had the perfect future planned out for you..." his father started.

"**Your** future. **Not** mine." Wes took a step closer to his father and lowered his voice. "For the first time in my life I'm doing something worth while."

He moved to step past his father, but his father moved with him, blocking his passage. "Wesley wait...stop. If you'd just let me explain..."

Wes glared, silencing his father with the look. "No."

"No?"

"All my life," Wes hissed, "I've done what **you** wanted me to do. Been what **you** wanted me to be. It didn't matter that **I** didn't want to do it or be it. Well now **I** am making my own future."

Without waiting to see his father's reaction, Wes pushed past him, heading in the direction of the battle.

"Wesley...son...I... Hey! Don't you walk away from me when I... Wesley! You walk away now, you'll regret it!"

Wes paused and glanced over his shoulder, meeting his father's gaze. "I'd regret it if I stayed."

Turning back, Wes continued on his way back to the battle. Behind him, he was aware of his father still spluttering angrily, but he really couldn't spare the effort to actually care. Instead he fixed his attention on getting back to the battle with Univolt. 

There was one merit to the argument he'd just had with his father, he realised. It had given his body a chance to recover, at least partially, from the laser blast. Leaden limbs suddenly seemed less heavy as more adrenaline surged through his body. Or it could have been the sight of Univolt aiming his rifle at the other four rangers.

Gritting his teeth, Wes called forth his V-1 blaster and put on an extra burst, determined that Univolt was not going to win.

"I really thought you rangers would have put up more of a fight," Univolt gloated.

"We're not done yet," Wes muttered softly, and fired.

The blast of red laser energy struck Univolt on his rifle gripping hand. Univolt screamed in surprise and pain and dropped the weapon. Whipping round, the mutant's gaze fell on Wes. "Huh? You?!"

"Yes, **me**," Wes snapped.

"Why can't you just die like any normal ranger?" Univolt screamed.

For answer, Wes just fired the V-1 again, this time squarely hitting Univolt in the chest.

"You can't beat me!" Univolt howled, staggering under the assault.

"We can, and we will," Wes answered. "You're going back to the freezer!"

He exchanged the V-1 for both Chronosabres and charged forward. As he neared the stunned mutant, Wes sprang into the air, readying both blades and calling out, "Time Strike!" He brought the blades down, striking Univolt hard with the combined power of the blow and energy of the Time Strike. Univolt reeled backwards, critically damaged.

Wes landed, staggering a little. Everything seemed to swim and his legs suddenly seemed as though they were made out of over cooked pasta. He was faintly aware of Jen calling for the Vortex Blaster and he vaguely registered Univolt's final defeat but beyond that he wasn't sure. His legs finally gave out and he crashed to the ground.

"Oh man!" He thought that might have been Lucas' exclamation, but the cotton wool confusion was back.

"We need to get him back to the clock tower." Was that Trip?

"Wes, if we help, do you think you can stand?" That was Katie.

Wes tried to answer, but he had a feeling that all that came out was an inarticulate mutter. Katie must have judged it to mean no because the last thing he was aware of was someone -- or several someones -- picking him up. Then mercifully, everything went black, and Wes passed out.

~*~

The first thing Wes realised as he woke up was that someone had not only demorphed him but had also dressed him in sweat pants. There was no shirt, but to judge from the restrictions in his breathing, that was probably because whoever had changed his clothes had also had to tape up bruised, or more likely broken, ribs. The next thing he realised was that he was lying on something soft. Wait. Soft?

Soft was not the barely there mattress that the sleeping bags were on 'upstairs'. Soft was the couch. Opening his eyes, he realised that he was, indeed, lying on the couch.

"It was hard enough getting you up here -- we didn't think we could get you up to bed." The voice came from the dark blur standing at the balcony door. The blur moved closer and resolved itself into Jen. "How're you feeling?"

Wes thought about the question for a few seconds. "Tired," he admitted." And sore." He slowly started to sit up and winced. "And **stiff**!"

Jen gave a watery sort of smile. "I'll bet."

"What time is it?" Wes asked, noting that there was daylight streaming in through the windows.

"Ten o'clock."

Wes stared. "Maybe I should have asked what day it was."

Jen smiled faintly. "You've been out for about eighteen hours."

"Whoa."

"What were you trying to prove yesterday?" Jen asked.

"I...wasn't trying to prove anything." Even to his own ears the words sounded hollow. Jen snorted inelegantly. "OK... Short answer, I don't know."

"Well 'I don't know' almost got you killed," Jen snapped.

"Believe me," Wes groaned, "I noticed. But what else **could** I have done?"

"I guess." Jen visibly sagged. "Sorry."

Wes studied the slump of her shoulders, puzzled by her reaction. There was something strange about it. The scream. When Univolt's rifle blast had hit him, he had thought he'd heard a scream, and that combined with the way Jen was acting now...

"You don't get rid of me **that** easily," Wes commented.

Jen started. "What?"

Slowly Wes eased himself to his feet, feeling even more of the previous day's exertions. "I think you know what I mean. Where are the others?"

"Out on an assignment -- and don't change the subject. I have no idea what you're talking about."

Wes shook his head slowly and started to limp across to the stairs. "Sure you don't."

"I don't. Wes, where are you going?"

"To have a shower."

"Uh not a good idea."

"What?"

Jen gestured to the heavy strapping around his ribs. "You have two definitely broken ribs, another that probably is and heavy bruising around the rest of your chest. You can't take the bandages off yet!"

Wes raised an eyebrow. "And my other alternative for washing would be...what? Are you volunteering to give me a sponge bath?" Jen blushed shade of red that would have given a tomato a serious case of envy. "Thought not." At that, Wes continued on his slow journey to the stairs.

"Couldn't you at least..." Jen began.

Wes stopped and slowly turned back to face her. "Couldn't I **what**?" He looked Jen up and down. "Couldn't I wait for the others to get back so that I can have some help?" The blush on Jen's face darkened from tomato to a delicate shade of plum. "Jen, I'm not made of glass."

"I know."

"And you're not going to get rid of me that easily." With that, Wes headed down towards the clock tower's bathroom.

~*~

Half an hour later, Wes privately admitted to himself that the sponge bath option would have been a much easier bet. Walking was difficult, bending was virtually impossible and the slightest touch to his chest was agony, but there was no way he was going to admit that to Jen. Instead, he gritted his teeth against the pain (promising himself that at the first opportunity he was going to buy some industrial strength Advil) and slowly made his way back up to the attic.

Jen looked up as he entered and opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Instead she just stared at him.

"What?"

"You look like hell!" Jen blurted.

Wes smiled wryly. "Why thank you -- I didn't know you cared."

Jen blushed again. "Sorry."

"It's OK -- I feel like hell, as it goes," Wes found himself admitting, and wondering at the same time just **why** he was admitting it.

"C'mere -- I'll tape your ribs up again," Jen offered.

Mutely, Wes accepted the offer and submitted to her ministrations. Unfortunately, she had to remove what was left of the first batch of bandaging before she could apply any new, and although she tried to be gentle, it wasn't long before black spots were dancing in Wes' vision. For a few seconds he whited out because he had no memory of moving to rest against the edge of the table, but the threatened black out never occurred.

"Sorry," Jen murmured, as she finally finished removing the old tape.

"'S OK."

Surprisingly, the application of the new tape didn't hurt as much as the removal process had, but even so, Wes was extremely glad when it was over. He took a few moments just leaning against the table, making sure he definitely wasn't going to faint -- and wouldn't **that** just prove Jen's point -- before slowly heading towards the steps to the upper level.

"Where're you going now?" Jen asked.

Wes grinned faintly. He'd have never pegged Jen for quite such a mother hen. "To find a shirt." An evil thought dropped into his mind. "Unless you **want** me to walk around without one?" Predictably, Jen blushed. Wes grinned with a little more humour behind the expression and limped up the steps to collect a shirt.

A few moments better -- and feeling a little more comfortable -- Wes returned to the main attic.

"So how come you got the baby sitting duties?" Wes asked.

"I offered."

Wes lifted his eyebrows. Strange and stranger. "I didn't know you cared."

"The world doesn't revolve around you," Jen snapped. "I had some things to do."

"Like?"

"Things," said Jen defensively.

Wes would have pushed for more details, but at that moment Jen's morpher bleeped.

"Is Wes awake?" Trip asked without preamble.

Wes didn't miss the brief smile that Jen gave before answering, "Yes."

There was a brief pause, presumably while Trip relayed the news to Katie and Lucas. "That's great -- d'you guys think you could come give us a hand now?"

"Sure," Wes answered before Jen could protest.

Jen shrugged helplessly. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

Trip chuckled. "See you in a bit, then."

As the connection cut, Jen glanced over at Wes. "You're nuts, you know that?"

"People have mentioned it before," Wes agreed.

"You don't even know what the job is!"

"You can tell me on the way there."

Wes grinned as Jen gave in. "Oh, c'mon."

~*~

The assignment proved to be raking up felled leaves, something that Wes found he could manage quite well as long as no-one actually asked him to bend down and pile the leaves into the rubbish sacks. It was another job he'd never imagined himself to be doing, but in spite of everything, he was definitely enjoying it.

"Wesley."

For the second time in as many days Wes felt the enjoyment drain away as he realised his father had appeared on the scene.

"I'd like to talk to you...please."

"Sure." Wes leaned carefully on the rake he'd been using, aware that the rest of the rangers had also stopped work.

  
"Alone?" his father suggested.

Wes shrugged stiffly. "Anything you have to say can be said here."

His father looked uncomfortable with the idea and opened his mouth to protest. Then he changed his mind and gave a shrug of his own. "I want you to join the Silver Guardians."

Wes wondered if he'd heard his father correctly. "You want me to do what?"

Looking abashed, his father ploughed on. "My commander was injured in yesterday's attack. I want you to come and lead the Silver Guardians -- if defending the city is really what you want to do..." But Wes was already shaking his head.

  
"You just don't get it dad," Wes answered. "It's not about money. We...the Time Force Rangers help everyone, not just those who can afford it." His father opened his mouth to say something but Wes beat him to it. "I don't want to have any part of your 'team'."

His father slowly shook his head looking completely baffled as he did it. "Wesley... I try, but I... I just don't understand you."

Wes sighed. "Maybe someday you will."

__

TO BE CONTINUED


	7. Measured Chaos

The characters and events aren't mine. (What, you're surprised by this?) They belong to Saban or BVE or whomever it is that actually owns the PR stuff now. Any relationship between the dialogue here and the dialogue from _The Quantum Quest_ is purely coincidental and is thanks to sirSTACK and the PRSW website.

While this is an episode interpretation, I know I have some errors in location. Please forgive these -- I truly haven't yet seen anything beyond _Something To Fight For_ (although I am working on that!)

Many, many, MANY thanks to Ekat for chewing this one back and forth with me and for prodding me when I got stuck. Huge thanks also to Ecolea and Leathie who've been incredibly helpful -- in spite of the computer chaos! You guys really are the best.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing; glad you're enjoying it so far!

~*~

Identity -- Measured Chaos

A week passed very slowly. Most of the time, Wes found himself being told -- usually by Jen and invariably in no uncertain terms -- to 'stay here and rest', regardless of whether the rest of the rangers were going out on a job or going to defend against Nadira and an entourage of cyclobots. It was beginning to get tedious. On thinking about it, the situation had long since gone beyond 'tedious', gone through 'irritating' and had reached truly aggravating proportions.

And at the same time, Wes couldn't argue.

He wasn't sure which was the more frustrating aspect - the constant mothering or the fact that most of it was more than justified.

Then, as if his own personal situation wasn't bad enough, there were the Silver Guardians, and more specifically, Eric Myers. After the temporary relapse of character during the Univolt fiasco, he was back to being the guy Wes remembered from their time at school together. Hard-nosed, arrogant, proud and self-absorbed. Or as Katie put it,

"If he inserted that rod any further up his butt it would come out the top of his skull."

If that had been the only problem, Wes suspected it wouldn't have mattered. But it wasn't. Eric and the Silver Guardians kept showing up, usually at the point when the Rangers had Nadira cornered. At the third time of this happening, even Lucas had been riled.

That was the reason Wes found himself quietly plotting a trip to the Silver Guardian's head quarters. Even if he couldn't participate in battles at the moment, he could at least try and smooth things.

  
"Wes you're not listening to me." Jen's voice broke across Wes' thoughts.

"I am," Wes answered.

  
"Then what have I just said?"

Wes rolled his eyes. "'And I don't want you trying to strain yourself in anyway'," he parroted. Jen's draw dropped open. "Jen, you've said more or less the same thing to me every day this week. I'm starting to bounce off the walls here 'not straining myself'."

She had the grace to look a little sheepish at this. "Sorry."

Wes waved the comment off. "I will be OK. I promise. I will take care of myself."

"Now you're being factious."

"Sue me."

Jen glared. "If you hadn't been so..."

"And as I've said at least five hundred times this week," Wes cut in, "what would you have done?"

"He's got you there," said Lucas, intervening.

For a few seconds, it looked as though Jen would bite Lucas' head off for the comment. Then finally, she subsided -- much to Wes' relief.

"C'mon," put in Katie, "we have a job to get to."

And that, Wes reflected, was that. Five minutes later and he was alone in the clock tower. He waited another five minutes, to make sure that they were clear, then he carefully crossed the attic to collect his bike helmet and jacket.

"Wes, where are you going?"

Circuit's voice made Wes jump. "Geez, Circuit -- give a guy a heart attack!" he grumbled.

"Sorry." Strangely the mechanical owl didn't sound the slightest bit apologetic. "You told Jen you'd stay here."

Wes grinned. "No -- I think I told her I'd be OK and that I'd look after myself. Didn't say anything about staying here."

"But, but, but..." Circuit spluttered.

Picking up the helmet and jacket, Wes turned back to face the owl. "Do you **really** want me bouncing off the walls again today?"

"She's going to deactivate me for this," Circuit warned.

"I won't let her," Wes promised. "In fact, she doesn't have to know." He offered the owl a wink. "I won't tell her if you don't!"

Circuit uttered something close to a sigh, and Wes knew he'd won this round. Slowly he made his way down to the alley where his bike was parked, only to find that it wasn't there. In its stead was a notice:

__

Knew you'd try this at some point, Wes -- and no dice. Have you any idea how many muscles it takes to hold a bike upright? --- Jen

For a brief second, Wes had the irrational urge to call Jen with his morpher and demand to know what the heck she thought she was playing at. Then the urge subsided. If he did that, she'd know for sure that he was not 'resting'. Besides, he had to admit that it had crossed his mind that riding his bike would be agony. OK -- he wasn't beaten yet. Granted walking would take a little longer but...

Determined, Wes stashed his helmet just inside the door of the clock tower and headed out for the Silver Guardians' headquarters.

~*~

By the time Wes reached his destination, he was seriously beginning to doubt his sanity. Funny how a chest injury seemed to make everything difficult, from breathing to walking. He waited for a few seconds, catching his breath. It would NOT be a good start if he passed out in the foyer of the Silver Guardians' headquarters. If nothing else, it would mean he'd have to explain to Jen just what he'd been doing.

__

I can see it now. It was like this...no, really -- I was trying to... Jen -- put the blaster down! Wes shook his head. _No way am I risking **that**._

Finally recovered, he slowly headed into the building.

"May I help you?" enquired a bored looking receptionist.

"I'm looking for Eric Myers," Wes answered.

"In gym three. Down that hall, first left, second right, fourth door on your left -- just after the stairs," the woman replied.

  
"Thank you."

The receptionist grunted a response and returned her attention to her computer screen. _Shesh. Whatever happened to service with a smile?_ Shrugging, Wes followed her directions and soon found himself standing outside gym number three. Pushing the door open, he entered.

It came as no surprise to Wes that he found Eric in the middle of a solo practice routine. As Wes recalled, when they had been at school, very few people had been willing to spar against Eric. He tended to push the limits of what was considered friendly sparring -- on a couple of occasions, even managing to break a few bones. So things had clearly not changed.

Quietly, Wes waited until Eric had finished before drawing attention to himself. But as Eric finally completed the kata, Wes cleared his throat.

"Hey Eric."

Eric didn't jump at the words, which meant he'd been well aware of his visitor and had chosen to ignore him. Wes shrugged inwardly.

"You're not dead then," Eric replied, not bothering with a greeting.

"Not last time I checked," Wes shot back.

"Did begin to wonder," Eric continued, "considering I haven't seen you with your multicoloured friends recently."

Wes knew Eric was just trying to get an easy rise out of him. The annoying thing was it was working. Swallowing the irritation with difficulty, he said, "Well, you know how it is."

"Can't say I do. Was there something you wanted?"

"Yes, actually."

"So?"

Wes forced his hands to unclench. "Look -- I know you have a job to do..."

Before Wes could finish his sentence a loud klaxon sounded.

"Speaking of which," Eric cut in, "time for me to go do it. See ya." And with that, he brushed past Wes and headed out of the gym.

"Well, that went well," Wes muttered softly. He did wonder what was up, but almost as he was wondering that, it dawned on him that he could comfortably guess. Nadira was attacking some piece of property that the Guardians were being paid to protect.

Which meant he really ought to start heading back to the clock tower -- the others were liable to return once the attack was done and Jen's mood would be bad enough without...

Suddenly his morpher bleeped.

  
"Wes..." Circuit sounded a little uncertain.

"What's going on?" Wes asked. "I didn't think I was supposed to know about this."

Circuit cleared his voice. "We've got a full scale mutant attack going on at an archaeological dig site in the hills. The mutant's name is Brickneck, and he's after the Quantum Controller."

"The what?"

"There isn't time to explain it, but you have to stop him from getting it!" Circuit answered.

"You got it, Circuit."

As Wes cut the connection, he was moved to wonder just what this was going to be like, given his injuries. But...

"Time for Time Force!"

Apart from the first occasion, when he hadn't known what was happening, morphing wasn't a painful process. Normally. This time... It was like acid against his nerves. It felt as though his chest was exploding. It was complete and utter agony. It was the longest three seconds of Wes' entire life.

When it finished, Wes found himself on his knees, driven there by the pain. As he crouched there, panting, he wondered if he was even going to be able to move after that, never mind fight. But after a few moments the pain died away completely, leaving him feeling energised. Frowning, he cautiously straightened and got back to his feet. Not one single twinge of pain.

__

I don't know what morphing has just done to me, but if it let's me do this I'm not complaining.

And with that thought, Wes headed out for the archaeological dig site.

~*~

He arrived at the site to find the battle in full swing. It had long since gone beyond the stage of knowing who was winning or losing, although a quick visual survey highlighted one person who was definitely in trouble. One of the Silver Guardians looked as though he was about to become mincemeat at the point of Brickneck's sabre.

Wes didn't even need to think about what to do. He just dived straight in, calling forth both chrono-sabres as he went. As he neared the downed Guardian, he realised it was Eric. _Why am I not surprised?_ But that knowledge didn't slow his charge. _I owe him this._

Brickneck lifted his sword in preparation of the fatal strike, just as Wes reached them. It was the work of barely a second to interpose a chrono-sabre to parry the downward swing.

"Huh?!" Brickneck exclaimed, finding the swing blocked.

"Huh?!" Eric exclaimed, finding his life unexpectedly prolonged.

Wes grinned behind the faceplate of his helmet. For good measure he kicked out at Brickneck and then slashed at it with both chrono-sabres. The attack sent the mutant reeling away, enabling Wes to offer Eric a hand up.

"Are you OK?"

Eric slapped the proffered hand away. "I don't need your **help**!"

Before Wes could do or say anything, Eric had rolled to his feet and chased off after Brickneck. Wes moved to follow, but Eric had already been swallowed up by the sea of Cyclobots. Wes cursed softly and turned his attentions to the Cyclobots.

As he took down a pair of the bronze coloured robots, movement at the side of the battlefield caught his eye: The other rangers had Brickneck cornered, but the mutant had his hands on a silver-and-black case. _That has to be the Quantum Controller,_ Wes realised.

He dismembered another Cyclobot and vaulted over the remains, heading for the other rangers. As he went, he heard Brickneck say,

"It'll take more than four of you to stop **me**!"

"No problem!" Wes called, as he landed behind Brickneck. Before the mutant knew what had hit it, Wes had landed several harsh blows and forced it to drop the Quantum Controller box. Wes grabbed it. "I'll take that!"

"Wes?!" Jen exclaimed in a less than impressed tone of voice.

__

Not a good sign -- Jen's pissed. "Figured you could use a little extra help," Wes answered.

"We'll talk later," Jen promised.

__

Definitely not a good sign.

"Oh I don't think you're going to get the chance," Brickneck put in. So saying, it flung its sabre in Wes' direction. The lethal blade missed Wes comfortably, but Wes felt the sinking sensation that it was supposed to miss him. That was confirmed a moment later as Brickneck fired his rifle, igniting the sabre.

__

Oh crap!

~*~

The first thing that hit Wes, as he slowly swam back to consciousness, was a sense of déjà vu. He could feel something soft beneath him -- which probably meant he was lying on the couch again. He could feel more strapping around his ribs -- had he actually broken a couple more, or had he further aggravated the already broken ones? The only difference between the aftermath of the Univolt battle and now was that someone was still patching him up.

That, Wes judged, had to be a good sign. It meant that whatever it was that Brickneck had done to him hadn't been as serious as the damage Univolt inflicted. It did cross his mind to wonder what had happened, but all he could remember was Brickneck firing at the sabre. Everything after that was a haze.

"Is he going to be OK?" Lucas' voice cut across Wes' thoughts.

"He was hit pretty hard but he'll be OK." The answer came from Jen and somehow it didn't surprise Wes to realise that her voice was coming from rather close to him.

"We've got to find that control box before it falls into the wrong hands." That was Katie, but her comment only alarmed Wes. _What about that thing I took from Brickneck?_

"Yeah," Lucas agreed. "We almost had it too until Brickneck attacked Wes."

Wes wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or guilty at this -- clearly it **had** been the controller and because of whatever Brickneck did to him they'd lost it again.

"How'd it get here anyway?" Trip asked.

"I can explain," said Circuit. _Good to see Jen hasn't deactivated him,_ Wes idly mused. "When Time Force first started experimenting with time travel, they sent the Quantasaurus megazord and the Quantum Controller back in time. But something went wrong. The controller and the megazord got separated and both were lost."

"Presumably," mused Lucas, "whoever has the controller will be able to control the Quantasaurus?"

"Exactly," Jen agreed. "That's why we have to find it first."

"But..." began Katie.

Before she could finish, Circuit interrupted. "My sensors are detecting a mutant at the storage depot... It's Brickneck again."

"He must have found the controller!"

Wes heard the sounds of Jen moving away from the couch, presumably towards the door.

"Can we take Brickneck down without Wes?" Trip asked.

"We're going to have to," Jen answered, uncertainty ripe in her voice.

Wes listened to them leave the clock tower before opening his eyes and slowly rolling off the couch. Just that action alone caused starbursts of pain throughout his body.

"Wes?" queried Circuit. "What are you doing?"

Slowly getting to his feet, Wes glanced around the room and located his shirt and morpher -- the latter presumably having been removed by Jen at some stage. "They can't do this alone."

"But..." Circuit trailed off as Wes pulled the shirt on, wincing at the movements. "It doesn't matter what I tell you, does it?"

"Nope." Wes strapped on the morpher. "I have to do this."

Circuit made a soft sound of disapproval before reluctantly adding, "Good luck, Wes."

Wes nodded his thanks and started for the door. His legs felt rubbery, his body ached and his head was pounding, but he kept going, the uncertainty in Jen's voice a spur. Finally out of the clock tower, he stopped, long enough to morph.

As before it was three seconds of pure pain, and this time when it was finished, the pain took far longer to dissipate. Even when it had, there was no energized feeling this time. _I must be **really** banged up,_ he decided, even as he called for his vector cycle and headed off towards the storage depot.

~*~

When Wes arrived at the storage depot, he could hear the sounds of battle coming from several places. He could hear the noise of blaster fire and judged that was where the other rangers were tackling Brickneck, and he started to head in that direction only to be stopped by the equally distinctive sound of Cyclosabre fire.

Following that noise, Wes found himself pursuing a trail of destroyed Cyclobots though the storage depot and up to the roof level of the building. What he was not expecting to find, however, was the situation he came upon. Two of the bronze robots had their weapons levelled at Eric, who was unable to go for his own weapon because of what he was holding in his hands: The Quantum Controller.

Neither the robots nor Eric had actually seen his arrival, which leant Wes an extra couple of seconds to size up the situation. There didn't seem to be a great deal he could do. Shoot one Cyclobot, the other would shoot Eric. Then there was the detail that Eric was all but backed up against a guard-rail, preventing him from falling the fifteen feet or so down to the level below.

__

Well I have to do **something**, Wes decided. _If in doubt, improvise._

"Hey, bolt-brains!" Wes called.

Both Cyclobots spun round at the yell, only to find themselves being flattened. One by a well-aimed kick to the head, while the other met its end thanks to a gut punch followed by a knee to the head.

"Wes?!" Eric sounded stunned.

The world swayed a little as Wes turned to face Eric. _That is **so** not a good sign._ "Eric..."

"You're going to say 'give me the box'," Eric cut in. "Ain't gonna happen, Wes."

"You don't know what you have. Please -- just give me the box and get to safety."

"Uh-uh. Not a chance."

Wes took a step towards Eric. "Please..."

But it was too late. Before Wes could reach him, Eric inserted his left hand into the Quantum Controller. There was a flash of blinding light that made Wes flinch away, shielding his eyes. When his vision cleared and he looked back, the Quantum Controller had vanished, and in its place was a morpher, securely strapped to Eric's left wrist.

"Nonono...Eric please. Don't..."

"Jealous?" Eric asked mildly.

Wes blinked. "What?! Eric this isn't about us...what you think I think about you...or what you think about me. You **don't** know what you're getting yourself into. Please don't do this."

"Who's going to stop me? You?" Eric asked, derision permeating every syllable. "You can't hardly stand, let alone stop me."

That, Wes realised, was all too true. His legs felt like so much overcooked linguini. "I can stop you."

Eric just looked smug. "Not this time, pal." The last word was spat as though it was some sort of curse. Then before Wes could do anything, Eric lifted the morpher to his mouth and called, "Quantum power!"

There was a moment, like the calm before the storm, when nothing happened, then the morpher flashed with a golden light and then there was an explosion of light and sound and energy. Wes was knocked backwards and blinded by it. By the time he'd recovered, everything seemed to have come to an end, leaving behind a strange looking figure, crouched down where Eric had previously been standing.

"Eric?"

The man silently and slowly rose to his feet and Wes got to see more of him. He was garbed in a similar uniform to that of the other Time Force Rangers and from a distance, he looked considerably like Wes' own uniform. The main difference, however, was the actual colour. It was red, but it was a darker colour, much closer to the colour of newly spilt blood.

"Eric...is that you?"

The new ranger continued to say nothing, but Wes got the impression that the man behind the helmet faceplate was sneering. Then suddenly, he turned and vaulted the guard-rail, vanishing. Wes slowly shook his head.

"Oh man..."

Slowly and painfully, Wes got to his feet and managed to stagger down from the roof of the storage depot in time to view the demise of Brickneck.

"Jen, who is that guy?" Lucas asked, as Wes finally reached them.

Jen could only shrug. "I have no idea."

"Guys," Wes began, "I think it's Eric."

"Eric?" Jen echoed.

Wes nodded. "He used the Quantum Controller to become..."

"The Quantum Ranger," finished Trip.

"As if he wasn't already a big enough pain in the ass!" muttered Lucas.

Wes could only agree with that comment.

Katie, who had been keeping an eye on the battle unfolding before them suddenly let out a long whistle. "Man -- the Quantum powers are unbelievable."

Glancing in that direction, Wes could only agree with her. Eric had dispatched the remaining Cyclobots with ease and was now finishing off Brickneck -- a mutant who had caused the rest of the rangers a serious problem.

"But how is Eric going to use those powers?" Lucas wondered.

As Brickneck's chrono-frozen form dropped to the ground, Eric stepped around the shrunken mutant and slowly swaggered across towards them, coming to a halt about twelve feet away.

"Eric?" Wes tried again. "Are you all right?"

There was a soft snicker. "Oh yeah," Eric drawled. "Never been better."

__

TO BE CONTINUED


	8. Time To Heal

OK -- I admit it this is actually pretty much original work. (Had to happen!) No episodes of Power Rangers Time Force were harmed in the writing of this chapter, although this does touch on one of the plot strands of _Trust and Triumph_. The characters aren't mine however, and nor are a number of the events they mention. They belong to Saban or BVE. Or something like that. No money made!

This chapter is a quiet one after the last two solid action chapters -- but the action will return for chapter nine!

Many thanks to Ekat for the beta'ing and for liking the line I wrote with her in mind. For Darci and Selma -- for both saying very nice things about me.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing. Glad you guys are enjoying it!

~*~

Identity -- Time To Heal

Wes was lying on the couch as he had been for most of the two-week lull that had been in existence since the activation of the Quantum Ranger. Most of that first week had actually passed by in a complete haze of pain, but now he was beginning to chaff a little at the restrictions.

"You want to know what the worst thing about this is?" Wes asked no-one in particular.

"You mean other than the fact that Eric's now the Quantum Ranger?" Jen replied, being the only person present in the room to hear the comment.

Wes groaned. No-one had actually blamed him for that -- not that it had stopped him from blaming himself. "Yes, other than that."

"OK, I'll bite. What?"

"I feel absolutely **fine** until I actually move."

Jen gave vent to a snort that Wes suspected was actually swallowed laughter. "I'm not surprised," was all she actually said.

"Don't say it."

"Say what?" Jen asked innocently. "That it's your own fault?"

Wes sighed. "Yes, that." She hadn't let him forget that fact either.

"It does happen to be true," Jen commented.

Wes groaned. "I know." He heard her stand up and a few moments later she appeared in front of the couch and crouched down. "Please tell me I'm not about to get another lecture."

"You're not about to get another lecture," Jen answered, smiling. "I was going to ask if you wanted anything."

_Now or never..._ "Actually, there is something." 

Jen raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"

"Tell me about Alex."

Wes watched as Jen's expression froze. "What?"

Wes sighed -- he had known this wasn't going to be easy. "Look...there's this huge elephant sitting in the middle of the room and everyone's politely not talking about it and it's driving me nuts."

"You're already nuts," Jen responded faintly.

"OK -- more nuts," Wes amended.

Jen rocked back and squatted down on the floor. "You know what my first reaction is?"

"It doesn't concern me?" Wes suggested shrewdly. "Heard that one before. It might have been true, back in the beginning..."

"It isn't now," Jen finished, nodding. "It doesn't make it any easier."

Wes smiled faintly. "Guess it wouldn't."

Jen sighed. "Why do you want to know?"

It was Wes' turn to sigh. "Being laid up for the last week or so...it's given me a lot of time to think. You know so much about me...but you..." He grimaced, not really being able to explain himself properly. "You're a...an enigma wrapped up in a mystery."

"I try to avoid letting people in," Jen admitted. "It saves trouble."

"How do you mean?"

"If you don't let them get close, they can't hurt you...not really."

"So where does Alex fit in?"

A faint smile flitted across Jen's face. "He was the exception to the rule." Her eyes stared off into the distance. "I owe so much of what I am to him...but I still wish I hadn't let him in." Her eyes refocused on Wes with the same unnerving intensity they had possessed the first time they'd met. "He was the first guy I knew who wasn't scared by me...and the first person in Time Force who actually believed in me."

Wes raised his eyebrows in silent query.

Jen smirked faintly. "I joined the Time Force academy on my eighteenth birthday. All my life I'd promised myself that I would join up, become an officer and..." She shrugged. "Save the world I guess. Being so...driven...it kinda put the guys off when I was in high school."

Wes thought back to his own high school days. "Yeah -- I think that would have scared me too."

Jen flashed a grin. "But it all came to a crashing halt when I got into the academy. I realised that everything I'd built myself up to be was...just plain wrong. I couldn't cope with the pressure, I seemed to be flunking on most of the physical courses...about the only thing I seemed to be any good at was reciting the regs -- and only that because I'd learned them by heart as a kid. I was about to quit."

"So what happened?"

"I met Alex."

"And just like that your life was transformed?" Wes suggested, deliberately making his tone light and joking.

For the first time since he'd known her, Jen actually giggled. "Hardly. It takes more than that to turn a life around. Alex was...ooh boy. He'd been a Time Force agent for four years already -- a ranking officer for two, and he'd been the red Time Force Ranger for about eighteen months -- and was acting as one of the self-defence instructors at the academy... It was a temporary posting while he recovered from..." at this Jen giggled again, "broken ribs."

Wes had to grin at that. "The guy has my sympathies on that count."

"Anyway... After one particularly bad session on the shooting range, I was heading back to my dorm just about ready to write my letter of resignation...and I bumped into someone. Alex. I was horrified. But he...he was really nice about it -- sat me down on a nearby bench and just got me talking.

"I found myself spilling out all my problems and he just listened and nodded and when I'd finished he said 'Maybe all you need is a bit of extra coaching'. Before I knew it not only had he offered to help me, he'd set a date and time for our first session. He was just the nicest guy about it, too -- friendly without being...I don't know. Creepy."

"He sounds like a great guy," Wes agreed.

"He was. He taught me everything I know about being a Time Force officer... I was so proud when I finally graduated from the academy and got my badge. After the ceremony, Alex came over to me and asked me if I'd like to go out for a meal...to celebrate. I said yes...and before either of us knew it we were an 'official' item."

"So what was he like?" Wes asked gently.

Jen smiled. "I guess he was a lot like you. A little quieter, maybe...different sense of humour..." Her voice trailed off.

"What happened?"

"Ransik," Jen spat, all traces of humour fading from her face. "Time Force captured him...Alex captured him, he was sentenced to cryogenic prison for life...and then he escaped."

"Escaped?"

Jen winced. "We...my squad -- Lucas, Trip, Katie, me -- were assigned to transport Ransik to the prison...only Nadira and Frax ambushed us...and Ransik got loose. They went to the prison...set off an alert...and Alex responded. He didn't wait for back up...he just..."

"Charged in?" Wes suggested.

Jen nodded. "When we heard about it...heard about where Ransik had gone, we headed straight for the prison -- it was our fault that Ransik got away...we...I was determined that we'd be the ones to get him back... But we got there in time to see Ransik...kill Alex."

For a long while, there was virtual silence. Wes could only watch helplessly as Jen's shoulders shook with near-soundless sobs. Gradually the tremors slowed in frequency, and eventually, Jen looked up again.

"Sorry," she murmured.

"Nothing to be sorry about." From a pocket in his jeans, Wes produced a handkerchief and carefully handed it to Jen. "About the only useful piece of advice my dad ever gave me."

Jen looked puzzled. "What was?"

"'Now son, always make sure you have a clean handkerchief -- you never know when you might need it'," Wes replied, mimicking his father's stern tones.

Jen managed a weak chuckle. "You're right, that is good advice."

"Feel better about that elephant?"

There was silence for a few moments while Jen thought about the question. "Yeah... A bit." She shot Wes a suspicious look. "How did you know?"

_Turnabout is fair play._ "Because I reacted much the same way when my mom died," Wes replied.

"Your mom died?" Jen echoed.

Wes nodded. "When I was ten...I'd just finished fifth grade and started on my summer vacation...we were going to go to see mom's family in Austin. I was so excited -- my first trip to see them..."

"What happened?" Jen asked softly.

"Mom had to go into town to buy some things for the trip...she was supposed to meet dad for lunch...she never made it. She got knocked down by a trucker who failed to stop for a cross-walk." Wes stopped for a few moments and swallowed -- he hadn't realised how much it would hurt to talk about this so many years later. "It hit me hard...it hit dad harder. I think that was when he started to really bury himself in his work...I know that's when I suddenly found myself being pushed off to boarding school...and I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I wanted to understand what had happened -- and no-one would talk to me...so I figured I wasn't supposed to talk about it... It was my grandmother...mom's mom...who finally called me on it. But it took a year."

"Wow." Jen shook her head.

"I was a pretty messed up kid, I guess," Wes mused. "Dad and I still haven't really talked about it, either...never had the chance -- I've never known how to bring the subject up with him and..." He shrugged awkwardly. "Guess he doesn't want reminding that it happened."

There was an awkward silence as Jen digested what Wes had just told her. Sorting through his own feelings, he realised that he felt better about a lot of things than he had done in a long while. Having finally told someone about his mother's accident seemed to have lifted a weight from his shoulders. As for what he'd learned about Alex, it helped to ease his mind as to whether or not the actions he'd taken in the last three weeks would have measured up to his doppelganger's standards. Based on Jen's comments, he decided, Alex would have done exactly what he **did** do.

Then there was how Ransik came to be on the loose. It had always puzzled him as to why Jen and her team had been sent to capture the mutant overlord rather than anyone else -- and why they'd been sent back with so little equipment or preparation. But if this had all been Jen's idea, not her superiors...that made sense. And Wes' admiration for Jen increased another notch.

Startling him out of his reverie, there was a loud clatter on the stairs, heralding the return to the clock tower of Lucas, Katie and Trip, who had been out on assignment.

"I can honestly say," Katie was saying, "that I have never wanted to kill anyone before today."

"Me either," Lucas agreed. "The guy has the biggest chip on his shoulder that I have ever seen!"

Wes looked at Jen, who rolled her eyes.

"What did Eric do today?" she asked.

"Breathed in and out?" suggested Wes.

"Came to gloat again," said Katie. "We need to do something about him, badly."

"Yeah, but what?" Trip asked. "It's not like he's going to give up the quantum powers now."

Wes sighed. "Maybe it's time we went to talk to him... Tried to talk some sense into him...or at least got him on our side."

"Would he listen to us?" Lucas queried. "He didn't seem to be doing a whole lot of listening the last time we tried that."

Slowly and carefully, Wes sat up on the couch. "Well we won't know until we give it a try."

_ TO BE CONTINUED_


	9. Control Issues

Comments: Let me say that I'm truly apologetic about the length of time it's taken me to write this chapter. To say it's not gone well would be an understatement! Writer's block set in and...well, anyway. What should have only taken a week or two has almost taken me longer than writing the previous eight chapters put together! 

This picks up where _Time To Heal_ left off.

Disclaimer: The events, characters and at least some of the dialogue belong to BVE, not me. I'm not making any money out of this -- it's purely for entertainment.

This is an interpretation of the whole _Clash For Control_ arc with a few of the plot hitches smoothed out.

With grateful thanks to Selma and Darcy for the assorted cattle prodding you guys have done, and with **MASSIVE** thanks to Ekat for the hand holding, nurse-maiding, cattle prodding, beta'ing, question answering and patience you've shown me through this chapter. You are an absolute angel!

Please offer feedback -- glad you guys are enjoying it (and I promise the next few chapters will be out quicker!)

~*~

Identity -- Control Issues

"Whoa -- where do you think you're going?" Jen enquired, as Wes moved to stand up.

"To talk to Eric," Wes replied.

Jen got to her feet. "Nonono. You stay right here. **We**," and Jen gestured at the other rangers, "go talk to Eric."

Wes sighed. "He doesn't **like** any of us -- but at least he knows **me**." He got to his feet. "Besides, I've been cooped up in here too long. And I am feeling better."

Jen groaned. "Wes, you're impossible."

"He's also right," Lucas commented. "About Eric, at least."

"I know." Jen sighed. "Doesn't mean I have to think it's a good idea, though."

Wes rolled his eyes as the rangers started to leave the clock tower. "Why? What could I possibly do? All we're doing is talking to the guy."

~*~

With hindsight, Wes realised that he should have known something out of the ordinary was bound to happen after so vehemently protesting nothing would. But not even his powers of imagination could have dreamed of **this**.

__

Jen is going to kill me.

He and the other four rangers had gone to the Silver Guardians' compound, had sought out Eric and had tried talking some sense into him. But Eric had cut the floor out from under them.

__

Why we assumed he didn't know what he had, I don't know, Wes mused. _It was stupid. Especially on my part._

Eric clearly knew all too well what he had in the quantum morpher and attendant powers, and said as much. And before anyone could contradict him, there had been a flash of light and a time hole had appeared on the horizon.

"Ransik must be going for the Quantasaurus!" Trip had exclaimed.

"No-one," Eric had vowed, "is getting the Quantasaurus but me."

Without waiting for any kind of response, Eric had morphed and had summoned something that looked decidedly reminiscent of a fighter jet to Wes' eyes, called the TF Eagle.

It had been clear, at least to Wes, that Eric was planning on going through the time hole to find the Quantasaurus. But that, Wes realised, was his last piece of conscious thought process. The next minute of his life had been purely instinctive. As the TF Eagle, with Eric aboard, had started to lift off, Wes had found himself running towards it, morphing -- which induced a burst of pain that he managed to shrug off -- and leaping for the jet, determined that Eric shouldn't go alone.

That determination had been his last thought of any kind, which brought Wes to his present situation. Had he succeeded? Or had Eric evaded him and was he now lying on the couch in the clock tower about to be on the receiving end of another Jen lecture?

Wes opened his eyes.

And found himself staring up at blue sky through the fronds of comfortably the biggest fern he had ever seen.

"Where **am** I?"

Then a sight that every fibre of his body said was impossible drifted across his field of vision: A pterodactyl. It was one thing to know that time travel was possible -- it was another to actually do it, Wes realised.

"**When** am I?" he wondered, sitting up and taking in the details of the lush vegetation he was surrounded by.

"My guess," drawled a voice behind him, "is that we've gone back about a hundred and fifty million years. Give or take."

Wes swiftly got to his feet and turned to face the speaker -- and tried not to wince as the manoeuvre upset assorted injuries. Eric just shook his head and headed back in the direction of the TF Eagle. For a lack of a better idea, Wes followed.

"Know something," Eric remarked. "I had pegged you as smarter than this."

"What?" Wes tried to drag his attention back to Eric, but the sight of a Stegosaurus ambling through a nearby clearing was more than distracting.

His attention did return to Eric however as the Silver Guardian brought his hand down on Wes' shoulder and shook it.

"This was **stupid**, Wes," Eric commented.

Wes winced. "What was?"

"Following me here."

"Look -- you're not the only one here for the Quantasaurus. Ransik's sent a mutant and..."

Before Wes could finish, Eric had grabbed him by the shirtfront. "I'm gonna get the Q-Rex. Not some mutant. And I **don't** need your help!" Punctuating the sentence, Eric pushed Wes backwards.

Wes landed awkwardly on his back, the breath knocked out of him. Abused ribs complained and for a couple of seconds, he saw stars. But as that faded, the ground started to shake with an ominous rumble.

__

I have a very bad feeling about this.

"Eric..."

"Shh!" Eric waved at him to be quiet, clearly trying to pinpoint the direction of the noise.

Wes, in turn, also listened. Silence. Then...

An ear splitting roar sounded from directly behind Wes. He didn't want to turn round and look -- particularly given the expression of total horror on Eric's face.

"Run!"

Wes found himself being pulled to his feet by Eric and dragged off at a breakneck pace. The jungle around them erupted with the sounds of something big and nasty in the hunt for food. It was several yards before Wes even dared to look back and confirm it, but when he did, he wished he hadn't. He was not enough of a dinosaur expert to instantly identify what was chasing them -- but big, mean and hungry with lots of teeth seemed to fit the bill.

The chase continued unimpeded for, what Wes later estimated, about a mile. Neither he nor Eric exchanged words they just ran. If either stumbled, the other caught him to prevent the fall.

Suddenly, the path -- such as it was -- petered out into a wall of foliage too dense for them to get through.

"There's gotta be a way through this!" Eric muttered, frantically searching.

Wes glanced over his shoulder to see how much of a lead they had on their pursuer. "Oh, crap!"

He pushed Eric one way and dived in the other, just as the beast lunged for them both. There was a spurt of pain as Wes landed and rolled to a stop at the base of an impossibly large tree. Looking round, though, he realised that the chasing dinosaur had followed Eric and was now towering over him, toying with him and all but completely ignoring Wes' position.

Wes got back to his feet. Sure, it was tempting to let Eric become some dinosaur's breakfast, but Wes had no intention of sticking around in this time period and to get back to the right time, he would need Eric. With that thought in mind Wes eyed up the distance between him and Eric.

The dinosaur lifted its snout, presumably preparing to finally take a bite. "No chance, buddy," Wes muttered, and dived across.

The dive took him directly between Eric's prone form and the snapping jaws of the dinosaur. He grabbed Eric's arm as he passed and dragged the Silver Guardian out of the way just as the dinosaur lunged.

The dinosaur got a mouth full of vegetation for its troubles.

Wes' much abused ribs complained again.

Eric lay where he'd landed, more than slightly stunned at the narrow escape.

Wes shook his head, trying to clear the black spots that seemed to suddenly fill his vision, and staggered to his feet. The first clear thing he saw was the dinosaur recovering from its unexpected mouthful of leaves.

"Crap! C'mon -- get up...we gotta go!"

Almost to underline the point, the dinosaur roared. That seemed to spur Eric into moving. Wes reached to offer him a hand up -- a gesture Eric accepted -- and they restarted the chase.

This section lasted much less time as they found themselves almost running off the edge of a twenty-foot drop. Wes saw the cliff edge first and managed to stop in time. Eric only saw it at the last moment. For a couple of seconds his arms frantically pinwheeled in an effort not to go head first down the cliff before Wes grabbed one and dragged him back from the edge.

Behind them, the dinosaur roared. Slowly, they both turned back to face their pursuer. Perhaps sensing its prey was now thoroughly trapped, the dinosaur's charge slowed to something that -- in a human -- would have been called a strut.

"We're toast."

Wes ignored Eric's calm assessment. There had to be a way out of this. Frantically, Wes cast his eyes around their location, praying for some kind of inspiration. There was the jungle that they'd just left -- but between them and it was the dinosaur. Behind them was the twenty-foot drop, which was unlikely to kill them but... Then his eyes fell on a rise of land about a hundred yards to their left -- and more particularly the small opening at its base.

"Not if we can make it to that cave," Wes finally answered.

"What cave?"

"Over there." Wes pointed. "I think we can make it."

"And get pinned in there?" Eric retorted.

"It's gotta be better than becoming prehistoric lunch! Besides -- it would give us the chance to morph and get the hell away from that thing."

"When you put it that way..."

Eric bolted towards the cave mouth. Wes followed suit.

The dinosaur roared its anger and picked its pace up once more, clearly determined its meal was not about to escape. Eric, who was a couple of yards ahead, dived for the cave and made it safely. The dinosaur roared again. Wes stumbled.

The tiny slip was all it took for the dinosaur to block Wes' escape. There was a long frozen moment where he found himself staring straight at the dinosaur. Then the dinosaur gave another ear-splitting roar and lunged forward. Instinctively Wes leapt back, out of range, only to land awkwardly and off balance, teetering on the cliff edge.

Then the dinosaur lunged again.

__

Oh crap!

~*~

The first thing that came to Wes as he slowly swam back to consciousness was the unbelievable sense of déjà vu.

__

Not again.

He knew he was lying on his back and for a fraction of a second, he thought he could feel the clock tower couch beneath him. Then a distant roar sounded.

__

Well **that's** not something from the clock tower. Where the hell am I?

And slowly the remembrance of what had occurred filtered through the cotton wool that seemed to once again be shrouding his mind. He took a few moments more to assess what damage the fall had done to him.

The obvious was that his chest was throbbing with a low grade but steady pain, something that boded no good whatsoever. Beyond that were sundry other aches and pains, most notably in his head.

__

Must have cracked it good and hard.

Injuries catalogued as best he could, Wes finally risked opening his eyes to see where he'd landed. For a few moments, his vision blurred and swam. A distracted aspect of his mind informed him this probably meant he was concussed. Wes ignored it. Eventually he managed to focus on the cliff top he had fallen from. There was no sign of either Eric or the dinosaur.

__

Not that I was expecting there to be.

He sighed. Now that he was conscious, the question arose, what was he going to do? The obvious answer was that he needed to find Eric and the Quantasaurus...but how? Or where?

__

For all I know, Eric might have found the Quantasaurus already and gone, Wes mused, although even as the thought crossed his mind, he dismissed it. Eric was a lot of things, but he wasn't that mean. At least, Wes didn't think he was.

Slowly he got to his feet. For a few moments, the world swayed, then everything settled back on its proper axis. He slowly scanned the area and spotted a likely path.

__

Might as well go that way.

The first few yards were tough going as more aches and pains made themselves known, but with no other option, Wes gritted his teeth and continued, hoping that he was heading in the right direction.

Wes didn't know how long he stumbled along the path. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours, his sense of time seemed to be thoroughly confused. He suspected that part of the problem was that he was fading in and out of full consciousness, but there didn't seem to be a great deal he could do about that.

Even as he was noting that, however, the ground suddenly vanished from beneath his feet and he found himself falling again.

__

What the...?

He landed awkwardly, with a jarring thud. There was another moment where everything seemed to blur before his eyesight refocused. Looking around, he realised he'd landed in a pit, roughly six feet deep, but it was a strange shaped pit. The sides were angular and -- looking at the far end -- instead of it being flat, it had three indentations...almost like...

__

If this is a footprint I really don't want to meet what made it.

He painfully got back to his feet and scrambled out of the hole. Looking at it from ground level, it looked more like a footprint than ever. Shaking his head, Wes continued along the path, making sure to keep an eye out for any more giant footprints. But before he could get more than a couple more yards along the path, the ground started shaking.

__

Not again.

The sound of heavy footfalls filled the air. Barely keeping his feet, Wes turned and looked. Then looked up, and up, as a huge dinosaur loomed over him. For a full minute, he could only stare in outright shock as the monster creature came closer. But as it got closer, he realised something: This wasn't a real dinosaur.

It was made of metal.

"That must be the Quantasaurus," Wes murmured.

But along with that realisation came the knowledge that the massive zord was just about to step on him. Frantically, he dived aside, but the dive wasn't fast enough to beat the updraft caused by the Quantasaurus setting it's foot down, and Wes found himself being hurled through the air by the huge gust of wind. He landed some fifteen yards away, on the edge of a clearing.

Again the world vanished in a blurred haze. This time, his vision took longer to clear. Dimly, Wes recognised that this was not a good sign. Painfully, he eased himself back into a sitting position. Looking round, he saw the Quantasaurus make its ponderous way into a nearby cave. A couple of moments after that, the ground stopped shaking -- something that Wes took to mean the giant metal zord had stopped moving.

"The Quantasaurus Rex!" exclaimed a new voice. "I've found it!"

For a fraction of a second, Wes thought the voice belonged to Eric, but a glance into the clearing showed him the real source: Ransik's mutant.

"It's all mine!" the mutant exclaimed, starting out across the clearing.

The sight and sound of the mutant brought about a burst of adrenaline. "Oh no it's not," Wes muttered softly, got to his feet and launched a jump kick at the mutant, sending it flying.

Wes landed a little awkwardly, but managed to remain on his feet. "Think again, ugly."

"Haha, very funny," snapped the mutant. "You can't stop me!"

"Wanna bet?" Gritting his teeth for something he knew was going to hurt, Wes added, "Time for Time Force."

Just as it did when he morphed to go after the Quantum Controller a little over two weeks earlier, the actual morph was like pure acid through his veins, but at least once it was over and the pain died away he was left feeling somewhat energised. Calling forth both Chrono-Sabres, Wes charged forward to engage the mutant in battle. 

It didn't last long. Thanks to the assorted injuries and exhaustion, Wes' timing and reflexes were off and it didn't take much for the mutant to get him into a chokehold.

  
"You might as well give up," the mutant gloated. "You can't beat me!"

Wes struggled to get out of the hold. "I'm a power ranger -- I never give up." But Wes wasn't sure if he was trying to convince the mutant or himself.

Then suddenly he found himself falling. Dimly he realised that the mutant had released the hold and had pushed him away like a rag doll. As he hit the ground however, he felt an energy blast hit his back. As consciousness started to fade away, Wes distantly heard the mutant gloat some more about the fate of the Q-Rex, and then everything faded to a blissful, soothing, black.

~*~

Wes wasn't sure how long he'd been unconscious for, although he got the distinct feeling that it hadn't actually been all that long. Recalling that the mutant had just been about to claim the Q-Rex, he started to push himself off the ground and back to his feet. Tired muscles and bruised bones complained, but he ignored that as best he could. The only thing that mattered was stopping Ransik's mutant.

There was a sudden blast of red laser fire.

"What the...?!" Wes stopped and turned to face the direction the blast had come from. Across the clearing was Eric, fully morphed as the Quantum Ranger, aiming the Quantum Defender at... "Eric?!"

"And where do you think you're going?" Eric asked, not lowering the weapon from its aim point right in the middle of Wes' chest.

Wes gestured at the cave entrance. "There's a mutant in there -- we gotta stop him before he gets the Q-Rex!"

"Uh-uh. You're not going anywhere. No-one gets the Q-Rex but me."

Wes rolled his eyes and groaned. "Ransik's gonna get him if we don't get in there." He took a couple more steps forward. There was another laser blast, this time right at Wes' feet. "Eric! What are you doing?" Turning to face where Eric had been standing, Wes discovered that the Silver Guardian was now charging towards him with the Quantum Defender in blade mode.

Wes avoided that charge, but found himself on the defensive -- and coming off worst. At his best, Wes knew he could match Eric blow for blow but this was far from his best. It took little time at all for Wes to find himself on his knees, staring down the barrel of the Quantum Defender in blaster mode.

There was a long, drawn out moment when Wes wondered if Eric was actually crazy enough to pull the trigger. Breaking that moment came two noises. One from the mountain behind him and one from just above the tree line behind Eric.

"The volcano!" Eric exclaimed. Then he looked behind him. "Oh no! The time hole!"

Before Wes could properly register what was going on, Eric had shot back into the jungle.

"Eric!" Wes started after him, but the ground started to shake and crumble and then a chasm opened up in front of him, preventing his flight. "Eric, you can't leave me here!" But in the back of Wes' mind he knew that Eric could. And based on his behaviour so far, he probably would, too. Almost to underline that point, the TF Eagle rose up over the tree line.

"See ya, Wes!" Eric's smug fair well drifted down to Wes over the increasing noise of the erupting volcano.

"**ERIC**!"

The TF Eagle flew off, quickly leaving Wes' field of vision. Looking around, he felt his heart sink.

__

This is it. This is really it. I'm going to die here.

And then the patch of ground he was standing on crumbled into the rapidly widening chasm before him. Wes found himself falling straight towards a steaming river of lava.

And then suddenly he wasn't falling any more.

In fact, he realised, he was being pulled upwards.

"Now we're even," Eric muttered as he helped Wes up onto the TF Eagle.

"Thanks Eric."

"Huh." Eric grunted. "Just hold on tight."

The next five minutes were tense as Eric piloted the TF Eagle through the time hole. Wes didn't think he'd ever been so pleased to see the familiar sky line of Silverhills as he was when the TF Eagle finally broke out of the time hole in the correct time period.

"Last stop -- everybody off," Eric commented.

Before Wes could ask for clarification, Eric pulled the TF Eagle into a tight, banking turn. Wes found himself being thrown off into freefall.

__

Oh crap!

~*~

__

Did anyone get the number of that truck?

It took Wes a few minutes more before he managed achieve anything more coherent. When he finally succeeded, he realised that the other rangers were clustered around him.

"Wesley Collins," Jen muttered, "if you every do something that utterly stupid again so help me I'll..."

Dizzily, Wes squinted up at her, glad that she couldn't see his face behind the faceplate of his helmet, but before he could say anything in his own defence, Lucas cut in,

"I don't think we have time for that now, Jen -- look." And Lucas pointed at something behind Jen.

Wes, aided by Trip and Katie, managed to stagger to his feet in time to see what Lucas was pointing at.

"Oh no..." Wes groaned softly.

The Q-Rex was systematically laying waste to the city.

"We have to do something," Trip murmured.

"Yeah. But **what**?" Katie asked.

"We have to try and stop it," Wes answered.

~*~

Stopping something as big and as powerful as the Q-Rex, Wes realised, was rather easier said than done. They had managed to force the savage zord into a retreat but apparently that had only bought them a brief respite.

"It only takes a couple of hours for the Q-Rex to repair itself," Circuit announced, perching on the end of the clock tower's table.

"Which gives us two hours to find it and find a way to permanently stop it," said Jen.

"The Quantum Morpher should have control over the Q-Rex," Circuit continued.

"Well that wasn't Eric ordering it to tear up the city," stated Lucas.

"Which means Ransik has control some how," Circuit replied, "and is blocking the voice recognition from the Quantum Morpher."

"If I had the Quantum Morpher," Trip mused, "I could bypass the blocking device."

"We have to get that morpher back," Circuit finished.

Wes found himself the centre of everyone's attention. "What?"

"As you pointed out this morning," said Jen, "Eric doesn't like any of us, but he knows you."

Wes sighed. "You want me to go talk to him."

"Yes." Jen nodded.

"What about looking for the Q-Rex?"

"We can handle that," Lucas replied.

Jen nodded again. "You deal with Eric."

Wes sighed and reluctantly nodded.

~*~

Half an hour later, Wes found himself sitting in the reception area of the Silver Guardians' headquarters, waiting for Eric. The receptionist -- a different, and even more bored looking woman to the one who had been there two weeks earlier -- had paged Eric and told Wes to take a seat. 

That had been ten minutes ago and Wes was beginning to wonder if Eric was actually in the building.

"You've got a lot of nerve coming here," drawled a voice behind him.

Wes glanced round and realised Eric had managed to sneak up behind him. "We need to talk," Wes replied.

Eric lifted an eyebrow. "We do, do we?"

"Yeah. We do," Wes replied firmly. "Not here."

Eric smirked. "OK. This way." Wes followed as Eric led him out of the Silver Guardians' headquarters building and into the deserted yard area out back. "Now, what's so important?"

Wes took a deep breath. "The Q-Rex will be back any time now." Eric looked at him as much to say 'I know -- your point is?' "We think we can get control over it with the Quantum Morpher..."

"No deal," Eric cut in, not letting Wes finish. "And what makes you think you can get control of the Q-Rex with this," and he tapped the morpher strapped to his wrist, "if I can't?" Wes opened his mouth. "You just don't want me to be the Quantum Ranger. Admit it."

Wes stared. "That's not what this is all about!"

"Suuuuure," Eric drawled. "Admit it, Collins -- it really burns you up to see me with as much power as you."

"Eric this isn't about me. Or you."

Eric smirked and shrugged. "You keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you'll believe it. Anyway -- it won't matter what you think soon."

"What?"

Eric took a step closer to Wes. "Pretty soon, I'll be the leader of the Time Force Rangers."

For a full minute, Wes stared at Eric in complete and utter disbelief before managing to exclaim, "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, that's right," Eric replied, laying the sarcasm on inch-thick, "you didn't know."

"Didn't know what?"

"Your dad's gonna hire the other rangers to join me and the Silver Guardians. I," and Eric underlined the comment by pointing at his own chest, "am gonna be their leader."

For another minute, Wes stared at Eric in complete silence before bursting out laughing. "That's ridiculous. You have **got** to be kidding -- they would never work for my father." _Or you,_ he added silently.

Eric smirked. "Are you sure? They only want one thing, and that's to catch Ransik. With your dad's money and technology behind them, they'll do it a whole lot faster." Wes wanted to deny that statement, but it was simple fact. "You never thought about that, did you? You only thought about yourself." Eric rolled his eyes. "Typical, spoiled, rich kid. Truth is, your friends would be better off without you."

There was another, long and drawn out moment of silence. All the doubts and questions that Wes had thought he'd put to rest over a month ago surged back into being. He was sure Jen wouldn't **want** to work with his father or Eric, but at the end of the day, she wanted to catch Ransik and she'd already shown she'd do just about anything to achieve that goal. The others would follow her lead because she was their commanding officer. Even if they didn't agree with it. He had seen them do it once, right back when he'd first met them -- twice if he counted the fact that they'd followed Jen back to 2001 in the first place.

Eric was probably right. They would be better off that way.

__

But she's my commanding officer too. Until she tells me otherwise.

Wes looked back at Eric, who was casually leaning against the yard fence. "I came here for the morpher."

Wes took some measure of satisfaction at seeing Eric look surprised by the comment. The other man quickly hid his reaction -- but not before Wes had seen it.

"You want it? You're gonna have to take it from me."

"If that's the way it has to be."

Without waiting for Eric to make a move, Wes leapt forward into an attack. By rights and all logic, he knew who ought to win this fight. He was injured, probably still concussed from the assorted misadventures earlier in the day and bone tired, while Eric was fully fit. 

But there was one major factor to Wes' advantage: Wes was pissed.

He managed to drive Eric back a good five yards, landing some solid blows, before the Silver Guardian even had a chance to mount a defence, and even once Eric had managed to put up some kind of defence, Wes continued to attack relentlessly. Then Eric did the only thing open to him: He morphed and managed to land a solitary kick to Wes' injured ribs.

Wes found himself flying backwards through the air for just long enough to think: This is going to hurt. Then he landed on the ground and everything seemed to explode into red, hot, fiery pain.

~*~

Wes wasn't sure how much time had passed. He felt a gentle touch on his shoulder. Opening eyes he didn't remember shutting, he found himself looking up at Jen's face.

"When we get done," she murmured, "you and I are going to have a nice, long talk."

"Fall in line!" Eric commanded. Wes got the impression that this wasn't the first time Eric had said it. Neither Jen nor the other rangers, who, Wes realised, were also present, made the slightest attempt to obey. "He's not on your team anymore!"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Lucas replied to Eric's statement in an almost exact match for Eric's earlier tone of voice.

"We told Mr Collins we weren't interested in his offer," Katie continued.

"Yeah. We like our team just the way it is," Trip finished.

Wes couldn't see Eric's expression at this but he could well imagine it, and that imagining was confirmed by Eric's next comment: "You'll regret this."

"No, Eric," Jen answered, standing up. "This," and she waved a hand at the other rangers, and included Wes in the gesture, "is what teamwork is all about." She crouched down again. "If we help you up, you think you can stand?"

"I think so."

"Good. Katie, Lucas, Trip -- give me a hand here." Wes found himself gently being helped back to his feet. "Now, we need to..."

"Rangers!" Circuit's voice came over Jen's morpher, startling them. "The Q-Rex is back. You've got to stop it."

"We're on it." Jen glanced at Wes.

"I'm not going anywhere," Wes stated, before she could say anything. "So don't ask me to. Like you said: This is what teamwork is all about."

Jen smiled faintly. "All right. Let's do this."

~*~

Although Wes knew it was liable to lead to more problems in the long run, he was actually relieved when Eric succeeded in gaining control of the Q-Rex. The headache that he'd been suffering with off and on since getting knocked off the cliff was back, and getting more and more intrusive. At least with the Q-Rex finally on their side, he didn't have to try and concentrate through it. And mercifully, with the Q-Rex on their side, the battle with Commandocon didn't last much longer either.

"Wes, are you OK?"

Katie's query brought Wes back to reality. He realised, with some surprise, that he was back at the clock tower, with no recollection of getting there.

"Not really," he admitted.

"I'm not surprised," Jen commented. "Circuit's diagnosis is you have major concussion on top of fracturing another rib and re-breaking the partially healed ones."

Wes winced. "Major concussion?" he echoed weakly.

"Here." Jen handed him a glass of a greyish, gloopy liquid.

"What's this?"

"Anti-concussion treatment," Circuit explained.

"I thought concussion patients had to be kept awake or something," Wes murmured, looking at the glass contents dubiously.

"In your time, yes," Circuit agreed.

"And this works?"

"Of course." Circuit sounded vaguely offended at the implication it wouldn't work.

Wes looked at Jen and Katie. Both nodded. "All of it?"

"If you're not going to drink it on your own, we can make you," Jen commented.

Wes looked from Jen to Katie and back and opted to down the contents of the glass without another word. It tasted as revolting as it had looked but the affects were almost instant.

"Wow."

Katie rolled her eyes. "You sound like my brother."

"Ugh."

  
"You don't like the taste?" Jen queried.

"Do I look like I like the taste?" Wes retorted, grimacing. "It tastes like the dregs of a three day old beer bottle."

Katie snickered. "Definitely like my brother."

"Katie -- I think Lucas and Trip could use a hand clearing up the office," said Jen.

Katie nodded and shot Wes a sympathetic look. "OK." She headed out of the attic, pursued by Circuit.

Wes swallowed and looked down. If Circuit didn't want to be around for this...

"Now," Jen began in a pleasant tone of voice, "you want to explain to me just WHY you did such a stupid thing as hitching a ride on a time vessel?"

Wes risked looking up at Jen and regretted it. Her expression totally belied the tone of voice. Under a glare that could have frozen mercury, he felt his mouth dry up completely.

"You could have been killed, or worse," Jen thundered. "And yes, there **is** something worse than death. If you had slipped off the TF Eagle half way through the Time Hole you would have got stuck in the time stream, which is something that no-one would have been able to do a thing about. You would have been stuck there from now until all eternity, not dead just in limbo."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Wes finally managed to reply.

Jen shook her head. "Impulsiveness is all well and good if you don't have any responsibilities, Wes, but you do now. You're a ranger. Yes, you put other people first -- the kids Tentaclaw kidnapped, the Silver Guardians Univolt would have killed -- but you have **got** to start thinking before you act because if you don't, it will kill you."

Wes flinched, and said nothing.

"I know you're not playing," Jen continued, in a gentler tone of voice. "I know you know this isn't a game. And yes, as far as Tentaclaw and Univolt go, if I'd been where you were I would have probably done exactly what you did. But this morning... Whether we like it or not, Eric is a ranger too. He's an arrogant pain in the ass, but he knew what was at stake. And just because you have some unresolved grudge with him..."

"I do not!" Wes objected hotly.

Jen lifted her eyebrows. "You don't? Bull. You can dress it up however you like, but the bottom line is you have a problem with Eric that goes beyond the problem we jointly have with him." Wes opened his mouth to object again. "Uh-uh. Don't say it because I can see it for myself." Wes closed his mouth with a snap. "Just because you have this unresolved grudge with Eric, it does **not** give you the right to do what you did this morning."

Wes forced himself to meet Jen's angry gaze. "I don't know what you want me to say."

"I don't want you to **say** anything," Jen retorted. "I want you to **think**. You're no good to anyone if you're injured. It's bad enough if you get injured in a mutant fight, but..."

"I get the picture."

"Do you?"

Wes nodded. "You're right... I didn't think. I'm sorry. I'm doing my best."

Jen's expression softened just fractionally. "I know." She sighed. "I don't **like** having to do this, you know." 

"I'm sorry." Wes looked down again, feeling about as wretched as he'd felt since becoming a ranger. "I'll try to be more like Alex..."

"No!" Jen's vehemence took Wes by surprise. "I don't want you to be like Alex. You're **not** Alex. Yes, you're similar but you're you...and I don't want to change that. I just want you to be more careful...to **think**. Not to just react." There was a hesitation. "Besides I... I kinda like the real Wes Collins."

By the time Wes had collected his self-possession back together after that comment, Jen had vanished.

__

She likes me? Wes slowly shook his head. _When did that happen?_

TO BE CONTINUED...


	10. Recuperation

Disclaimer: The concept's mine, but the characters and events aren't -- but you knew that. Right? And I'm still making no money out of this.

Many thanks again to Ekat for beta'ing this.

~*~

Identity -- Recuperation

__

From the journal of Wes Collins, August 1st 2001

Having broken ribs officially sucks. I think I've spent more of the last month flat out because of them than I have doing anything else and to say it's driving me nuts is an understatement.

Of course, if I say that to Jen, I promptly get reminded that it's basically self-inflicted. (I think her bedside manner sucks more than the broken ribs!)

At least now I don't feel like quite so physically bad. Again. I've hit this point -- where I start feeling basically all right -- three times now (this is the third), and each time, something's happened to make me disobey Jen's order to stay put and not strain myself. Hopefully this will be third time lucky.

This time round, Jen's decided that, now I don't look as if I'm going to pass out, I can mind the phone and front desk. That does at least mean I'm not totally bored out of my mind -- but it's still torture.

And it's left me a lot of time to think.

Do I have a problem with Eric? He and Jen both seem to think so... If it was just Eric, I'd say he'd got a complex, but Jen...she seems to know me better than I know myself sometimes, which is a little scary. She seemed pretty certain.

I'm not jealous of him that is for sure. There's nothing about his life that I want for my own. Except maybe...

Oh crap.

I am jealous.

He has my father's approval, and I don't.

Of all the stupid things... I can't believe I let this bother me. Well, Jen's right. Like it or not, Eric is a ranger now, which means, like it or not, I'm going to have to work with him...which means I'm going to have to get over this. After all, it's not his fault my relationship with my father is screwed up like it is.

The funny thing is that since he brought the Q-Rex under control, none of us have really seen Eric. When he got the Quantum powers, he couldn't stop gloating, so not seeing him is weird. I'd have thought gaining control of the Q-Rex would have been a major gloat-point.

Maybe Trip's right. Maybe the power and the responsibility of what he has now will make him show us something different.

We'd certainly stand a better chance of beating Ransik if he worked with us.

I guess that one comes under the category of wishful thinking.

__

TO BE CONTINUED…


	11. Eric

Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, the events aren't mine either. They belong to BVE. No money made no harm intended.

This is a 'what you didn't see' for _Quantum Secrets_, and relates to _What Matters_.

Many thanks for more wonderful beta'ing to Ekat (I bow before you for I am not worthy)

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing.

~*~

Identity -- Eric

"You don't need to do that. I can manage." Eric's words were brusque as he tried to shrug off the helping hands.

"Uh-huh. Sure you can," Wes answered, sarcastically. "You can barely stand up, but sure, you can manage."

"Can it, Collins."

Wes sighed and wondered just why he was doing this. With Conwing defeated, Eric had turned to walk away from the other rangers, but he had got barely two steps before his knees had buckled and but for a hasty dive on the part of Trip, he would have crashed to the ground. On the spur of the moment, Wes had offered to help Eric get home.

"Look," Wes tried patiently, "I know you don't like me, but..."

"I don't like you?" Eric repeated, blankly.

Wes turned to face Eric. "You've been rude to me ever since you got back into town, you've fought with me, you've sucker punched me, tried to kill me...not to mention dropping me fifty feet from the TF Eagle. If all that's because you **like** me, I pray I never make your shit list."

"Oh."

"Oh would cover it," Wes agreed. He opened the passenger door of a Silver Guardians SUV and helped Eric into the seat. "Now where am I taking you?"

"Home."

Wes walked round the vehicle and got into the driver's side. "Which is...?"

"Huh?"

Wes wondered if Eric was being deliberately obtuse, or whether it was just the after affects of pushing himself too far. If it was the latter, Wes could appreciate it, but... "Eric, I'm not a mind reader."

"Sorry." And for once there seemed to be a lack of an edge to Eric's voice from the comment. "312 Maple Street."

"312 Maple Street," Wes repeated, to make sure he had heard right.

"You do know where that is, don't you?"

That sounded a lot more like the Eric Wes had come to know over the last month or so. "Yes."

Eric said nothing. Wes shook his head, put the SUV into gear and pulled away. They drove for a few blocks in silence.

"Is this what it felt like?" Eric finally asked.

"Hmm?" Wes glanced at the Silver Guardian. "Is what like **what** felt like?"

"This." Eric weakly waved a hand at himself. "Is this how you felt...after you took on Univolt?"

Wes risked another glance in Eric's direction, taking in the tired and slumped posture of the other man. "I guess."

"Yay me."

At the strange comment, Wes looked over at Eric a third time, in time to see his eyes roll up as the Silver Guardian passed out.

"Oh great." Wes pulled the SUV over to the side of the road and pressed the transmit button on his morpher. "Jen come in."

"Wes, what's up?"

Wes glanced at Eric's unconscious form. "I think Eric's more hurt than we realised."

Jen sighed. "That figures."

"I think I'm going to need some help."

"Would he do anything like this for one of us?"

Wes smiled faintly. "I doubt it, but we could be screwed without him."

"Good point." Jen groaned. "OK. One of us will be over to give you a hand...where?"

"312 Maple Street."

"Got it."

Wes cut the connection and pulled back onto the road, heading for Eric's home.

~*~

Five minutes or so after pulling up outside the dumpy, two-roomed house that said it was 312 Maple Street, Wes spotted the rental car that he had arranged for the other rangers to use when they had first moved into the clock tower. Much to his surprise, though, it wasn't Lucas behind the wheel, but Jen.

Wes slid out of the SUV's driver's seat, onto the sidewalk in front of Eric's home and waved. Jen gave a nod and pulled in to park just behind the SUV.

"Nice neighbourhood," she commented, climbing out of the car.

"Welcome to the part of Silverhills they don't show the tourists," Wes replied.

"Eric lives here?" Jen queried. Wes followed her gaze as it took in the obvious signs of neglect in the street, from the peeling paint work on the houses, to the weed and trash strewn front yards. "I thought you went to the same school."

"He was on a scholarship," Wes replied.

"Oh." Wes got the feeling that the term still didn't mean anything to Jen. "So where is he?"

"Passed out in the SUV," Wes answered, nodding towards the vehicle. "I didn't want to move him without help."

"OK -- let's get him into the house, then." A thought struck Jen. "Do we have keys to get into the place?"

"Probably not."

"Good thing I came prepared." Jen produced a set of lock-picks from her jacket pocket.

Wes stared, wide eyed. "They teach law enforcement officers to pick locks in the future?!"

Jen smirked. "Nope. I just knew some interesting people. And you can't talk, seeing as how I can't see this having been exactly one of your stomping grounds."

"Touché."

They both walked over to the SUV. Wes opened the passenger side door, and between the two of them, they managed to manoeuvre Eric's unconscious body out of the vehicle.

"And I thought he was uncooperative when he was awake," Jen muttered as they managed to carry him up to the front porch.

"What's wrong with him?"

Wes glanced over his shoulder at the sound of the voice and found a girl of about six or seven observing them. "He...ah..." Wes glanced at Jen for inspiration.

"Got hurt in that monster attack," Jen supplied.

"Shouldn't you be taking him to hospital?" the girl queried.

"Uh..." Jen began.

"We have," Wes replied. "They said he needs rest...so..."

"We've brought him home," Jen finished.

The girl frowned. "Is he going to be OK?"

Wes managed a smile. "Yeah."

"Good." She smiled. "I like him -- he's nice."

"Alice?" The voice floated from an open window in the next door house.

"Gotta go." And with that, the small girl slipped between the fence bars and headed back into her own home.

"Eric?" murmured Wes. "Nice?"

"Keep in mind, she's of the age that she probably still believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, too." Wes smirked. "Let's get him inside now that our audience has gone."

It took another five minutes of careful effort before they finally had Eric settled on his bed.

"What now?" Wes asked as he looked around the bedroom curiously. Spartan seemed to be about the only adjective that fitted. Apart from the bed, a chair, a dresser, a small beside table with an alarm clock on it and a few items of clothing over the back of the chair, the room was empty. There were no nicknaks, no pictures, no books... Wes would have likened it to a hotel room, except even they tended to look more homely than this.

"You see if you can find a bowl and some warm water -- I'm just going out to the car to pick up the medikit."

"OK."

Wes wandered through to the combined kitchen/living room. That proved to be just as impersonal as the bedroom. There was a small television and a couple of ratty armchairs in the living room piece, while the kitchen had a couple of cupboards over a cramped looking work surface that seemed to double as a breakfast bar, with a couple more cupboards under the sink. About the only objects in the whole house that seemed remotely new were the refrigerator and a microwave oven.

Wes slowly shook his head. Granted the clock tower was not terribly luxurious, but at least it felt lived in.

"Wes?"

The sound of Jen's voice brought Wes out of his reverie. "Hmm?" He turned to face her.

"I need that bowl of water," she prompted.

"OK."

As Jen nodded and headed back into the bedroom, Wes turned back to the kitchen. A quick rummage through the cupboards produced a large, old fashioned, blue and white enamel basin. That seemed to be about the only bowl that would suit Jen's requirements. It took another five minutes before the ancient plumbing system could be convinced to produce any hot water, and even then there wasn't much.

Wes carefully carried the bowl through to the bedroom and, at Jen's silent direction, placed it on the bedside table. At a loss as to what else to do, Wes stepped back, out of the way.

"Give me a hand here," Jen murmured.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need to get his shirt off so's I can properly clean and bandage that blaster wound, but I want to avoid moving him more than necessary."

"Just tell me what to do."

Jen nodded. Following her instructions, Wes gently lifted Eric's shoulders and upper body off the mattress, allowing Jen to slip what remained of the once white shirt Eric had been wearing off his shoulders. As he laid Eric back down, Jen produced a knife and slit the rest of the shirt so that it came away with no more trouble.

"He's probably not going to thank you for that," Wes commented.

"I'll buy him a new one."

Wes stepped back again as Jen started to gently probe the explosion of bruising across Eric's chest.

"In the medikit," Jen directed, not looking round, "there's a bottle of antiseptic. Pour a capful into the basin and soak one of the cotton pads in the mixture."

"Got it." Wes turned towards the medikit to do as she'd asked.

"Actually, Wes..." Wes turned back to Jen to see that she was looking up at him, an alarmed expression on her face. "Can you come here a sec?"

He frowned. "What's up?"

"Just...come here and tell me I'm seeing things."

Totally puzzled, Wes did as he was asked, and looked where Jen was pointing, just below Eric's rib cage. What he saw sickened him. There were four, livid looking scars, all about a quarter of an inch wide that snaked round Eric's side and presumably continued across his back. In between those were several other, paler -- presumably older -- scars. In fact, Wes realised, the whole of Eric's right side, from the bottom of his ribcage down to his waist was completely criss-crossed with scar-tissue.

"What the hell would have caused something like that?"

"Believe me," Jen replied, "you never want to know."

~*~

An hour or so later, Wes found himself somewhat anxiously pacing the living room/kitchen of Eric's house. Jen had taken a cautious seat in one of the ratty armchairs and was watching him with amusement.

"He'll be fine," Jen asserted. "Nothing broken, just bruised, and even the shoulder wound should heal without too much scarring."

Wes paused and looked at her. "I know."

"Then why are you pacing like a caged tiger?"

Wes had the grace to look sheepish. "I am, aren't I?" With an effort, he forced himself to sit in the other armchair. "Sorry."

Silence descended, punctuated only by the occasional rattle from the elderly plumbing system and the sounds of late afternoon in the neighbourhood.

"Eric knows," Jen said presently. "About us...Katie, Lucas, Trip and I being from the future...and about the Quantum powers coming from the future."

"How?" Wes asked.

"I don't know," she replied, shrugging. "Maybe Conwing told him...more likely he guessed -- he's certainly no slouch when it comes to intelligence."

"That's true," Wes agreed. "But...?"

"But I don't know what he's going to do with that information."

She didn't need to say anything more for Wes to know what she meant: She didn't know if Eric would maintain the secret, or if he would tell everyone. _Or,_ Wes mused with a grimace, _worse still, tell my dad._

"Maybe... Maybe Trip's right," Wes finally said. "Maybe he will show us something different."

"I hope you're right."

The silence returned. Wes found his mind wandering almost as freely as his feet had been earlier, although the musings were all directed at one thing, one person. Eric. There were so many things that weren't making much sense. Chief amongst them were those strange scars. He couldn't imagine what would have made them, or how.

"What?" Jen asked, drawing him out of his reverie again.

"You know what those scars are," Wes stated.

Jen chewed her lip and nodded. "I recognise them, yeah." Wes waited. When it looked as if Jen was going to say no more, he made a winding motion with his hand. "Or at any rate, I've seen similar."

"And...?"

Jen signed. "Alex and I worked a kidnapping/murder case not long after I was assigned as his partner. Several kids had been snatched -- high profile kids...know what I mean?" Wes nodded. "And one by one their bodies were showing up. All of them had died as a result of blunt trauma to their heads but all of them..." She trailed off and chewed her lip once more.

"All of them what?" Wes prompted.

Jen sighed. "They all had scars across their backs and to a lesser extent their sides. They'd all been made by the same thing but we were at a loss as to what it was -- the Time Force equivalent of a forensics department had literally never seen anything like it. The scars looked much the same as the ones Eric has."

This felt a little like pulling teeth as far as Wes was concerned. "So what caused them?"

"We didn't find out until we finally nailed the guy. He was a real son of a bitch -- he made Ransik and a few of the mutants I've had dealings with seem respectable citizens." Wes winced at that prospect. "He kidnapped the kids to make them into...to try and make them into slaves. And to make them behave...or to punish them, he flayed them."

"Flayed as in..." Wes trailed off, feeling sick to the pit of his stomach. "With a whip?" Jen nodded. Then what Jen had actually said sank into Wes' mind. "You mean..." He swallowed. "But that's... It doesn't..."

"Judging by those scars," Jen replied, "it does happen. And recently."

Wes slowly slumped back into the armchair. He supposed he knew things like this went on in this day and age but his upbringing had tended to insulate him from the realities of life.

Jarring him out of his thoughts, there was a low groan from the bedroom.

"Guess sleeping beauty's awake," Jen commented softly.

"What the...?!" The exclamation sounded puzzled, as if Eric couldn't quite work out where he was or how he'd got there.

"Shall we?"

Wes nodded. "Want me to go first?"

"Who's out there?" Eric called.

Jen mouthed 'go for it' at Wes. He nodded, stood up and headed towards the bedroom door, conscious that Jen was following on behind.

"Oh. It's you," Eric commented flatly as Wes walked into the bedroom.

"You were expecting maybe the Tooth Fairy?" Wes retorted.

"I was expecting to find myself slumped on the back porch."

"Why? Because that's what you'd have done, roles reversed?" Wes suggested.

Eric slowly sat up, wincing as his assorted bruises complained, and shrugged a little stiffly. "Not as if I've given you any reason to do anything else. How'd you get in anyway?"

"With a bit of help," Wes admitted.

"How're you feeling, Eric?" Jen asked, stepping out from behind Wes.

Eric sighed. "Are the other three in my living room?"

"No. Just us."

"Huh." Eric slid off the bed and stood up. "Well, I'm fine now, so you can just go back to that clock tower of yours or wherever it is you hang out."

"Eric, why are you so determined to push us away?" Jen asked.

"Because I don't need your help, and I don't want your friendship."

"Wrong answer," said Wes.

"What do you mean wrong answer?" Eric's temper was clearly starting to rise.

"I mean, just **think** about this for five minutes, Eric. What would have happened if one of us hadn't offered to bring you home? What would have happened if you'd collapsed like you did when you were actually behind the wheel?"

Eric opened and shut his mouth a few times before managing a weak. "OK."

"For that matter, what would have happened if you hadn't gone it alone against Conwing? If you'd accepted our help then?" Jen added. "Like it or not, you're a ranger. Like it or not, so are we. If we **don't** work together things like today are going to keep happening until it winds up killing someone. Maybe you, maybe one of us -- or maybe someone innocent like your next door neighbour."

Eric visibly winced at that.

"You don't have to like us," Wes continued. "Just work with us."

"I don't **do** teamwork," Eric muttered.

"Why?"

"Because teamwork can get you just as dead as working alone...if not deader."

Wes opened his mouth to say something more but Jen got in first. "That's..."

"Cold, hard, painful experience," Eric finished, in a tone of voice which brooked no argument.

For several seconds, Wes stared at Eric and Eric stared right back. "We're fighting on the same side," Wes finally said. "And like it or not, you're on this team. Can you deal with that or are we just going to have this whole conversation again sometime?"

Eric crossed to the chair and started picking through the clothing on the back. "Maybe. If I say yes, does that mean you two are going to leave me alone?"

Wes glanced at Jen and shrugged minutely. He suspected that was going to be the best they could hope for.

Eric turned back to face them, carefully pulling on a dark undershirt. "Look. I'll cut a deal with ya. You stop hassling me, I won't tell Mr Collins about what I know."

For a brief moment, the offer hung on the air, then Jen nodded. "OK. C'mon, Wes -- let's get going. The rest of the gang are probably wondering what's going on."

Wes nodded. "Yeah. See you around, Eric."

Eric said nothing, just continued getting dressed. Wes shrugged and headed in the direction Jen had already taken. As he reached the front door, though, there was a soft comment from behind him.

"Thanks."

_TO BE CONTINUED..._


	12. Love Labours On

Disclaimer: None of this is mine. The story and characters all belong to BVE et al. Any resemblance to the dialogue from _Lovestruck Rangers_ is purely coincidental.

It's a partial episode interpretation and a 'quiet' chapter (likely to be the last such for a good few chapters -- a positive glut of action is on its way!)

With grateful thanks to Ekat, beta goddess and all round wonderful human being.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing; glad you guys are enjoying this

~*~

Identity -- Love Labours On

As Wes finally completed mowing the tennis club's lawn he couldn't help but feel glad that Eric had not been around to see the chaos that Contemptra had caused. He felt bad enough about it all without having Eric's unquestionably snide comments thrown in for good measure.

__

Then again, Wes mused, tidying up; _maybe she'd have got him under her spell too. Now that would have been amusing._

For a brief moment the mental image of Eric behaving like a love struck teenager made Wes smile, but the expression faded. No -- he didn't wish that experience on anyone. Having his emotions played on and manipulated as Contemptra had done had left a very bad taste.

Of course, it didn't help that the mutant had taken a very real feeling and twisted that into something else.

Wes suddenly froze.

__

Real feeling? Where did **that** come from?

Then something that Trip had said to him a couple of months earlier, after Jen had gone after Ransik on her own:

__

"Who said love was logical?"

Wes' first reaction that night had been denial, and he had forced the idea out of his head, but it now came back to him. Had Trip been right back then? Was he in love with Jen?

He wanted to deny it, but thanks to Contemptra's meddling, denial was no longer an option. The spell had sought out any feelings of desire -- acknowledged or otherwise -- and had taken them, twisted them and magnified them, and, even though the spell was now broken, the original feelings were left laid bare.

There was no denying it.

__

I love Jen.

Never had three words scared him so much, because he didn't know what to do about them. It wasn't as if he could just walk up to Jen and tell her.

Could he?

__

Oh yeah. Bright idea. 'Hey Jen, know what? I love you' -- she'll probably stick me through the nearest brick wall for it. Wes sighed. _Telling her is definitely out. And it's not like I can tell anyone else, either._

Wes slowly shook his head and chuckled ruefully, wondering how he'd managed to wind up in this situation.

__

I guess it could be worse, he decided as he finally finished tidying up. _At least she doesn't actively hate me any more._

"You've done a good job," commented the tennis club's president, coming out of the clubhouse to inspect. "Eventually." Wes looked a little sheepish at the barb, but decided not to make any comment. "Here's what we owe you."

Wes accepted the envelope that the club president was holding out. "Thank you."

The president nodded and walked away again, leaving Wes to pick up his assorted bits of equipment.

As he began the long walk back to the clock tower, Wes turned his thoughts back to his problem. There was a nagging feeling that he'd missed something about the situation with Jen. He frowned and started going through everything she'd said or done, particularly anything that had been said or done to Contemptra.

There was something different about her actions when fighting Contemptra. The last time he'd seen Jen **that** focused had been against Fatcatfish and that had been...personal.

Wes stopped suddenly. That couldn't be it, could it?

__

Could it be she was jealous?

The reflex was to dismiss the idea as ludicrous but he had been around enough girls to have a fair idea of when one was being jealous and Jen's behaviour screamed it. All the same... A grin flickered across Wes' face as he started walking again. It would be an easy enough theory to test.

But as he neared the clock tower, he wondered at the sanity of that idea. Sure, it would be easy enough to test -- but what happened to him if it turned out Jen was reacting that way for other reasons? Wes sighed. _Just suck it up and move on, I guess._

It didn't surprise him to find, when he finally got back to the clock tower, that Jen was sitting behind the counter doing the weekly accounts.

"Well, that's another job done," he announced, as the door closed behind him.

Jen looked up and grinned. "Finally," she added.

Wes grinned sheepishly back. "Yeah. Finally."

Jen looked back down at the accounts as Wes crossed the office to put away the mower. As he did so, he nodded to himself. To hell with the consequences -- it would be worse to not know.

  
"You know, I've been thinking," he began.

"Oh?" Jen looked up again, this time chewing on the top of her pen.

"You **really** did a number on Contemptra," Wes continued. "I've never seen you fight that way before."

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"Well..." Wes paced across to the counter. "It was almost like it was personal or something."

"That's **ridiculous**!" Jen retorted, smiling, although the expression didn't quite reach her eyes. "She was just another mutant."

Wes logged that point away for later consideration. "Yeah," he agreed. "But she was a **babe** in human form."

Wes almost lost his straight face on seeing Jen's expression. She looked much as she had the first time she'd seen him -- only a little more angry and a little less scared. "Really?!" Wes nodded. "So **that's** your type!"

He could only watch in stunned amazement as Jen's expression turned angrier than he'd seen it in a long while. _Theory confirmed, I'd say_, he mused. For a few seconds, he thought she was going to rip his head off with her bare hands, then the strain of trying to keep his face straight told, and he started to laugh.

"What is so funny?!" she all but yelled.

"I'm sorry..." he gasped. "You didn't really think that..." But she clearly **did** really think that. "No -- I was kidding." He came to stand behind the counter as she started to smile again -- this time in clear and visible relief.

"So what is your type?" Jen asked.

"My type...is...more like...a lot more like..."

"Like?"

Wes started to lean in, fully intending to show Jen just exactly who his 'type' was, and to his surprise, she started to lean closer...

And then the phone started to ring.

There was a frozen moment when their eyes met, and then Jen turned her attention to the phone. As she picked up the receiver, Wes bowed his head and smiled ruefully.

__

Some people's timing stinks.

As the call finished, he prepared to make another try, but when Jen looked back at him, he could see she'd pulled back.

"You've got a new job," she stated, clearly glad of the change of subject.

Wes sighed and nodded, listening to the details of the new assignment. Maybe it was just as well the kiss hadn't happened. While he was sure of his own feelings, he was equally sure Jen **wasn't**, and he was fairly sure neither of them were ready for that kind of relationship.

__

Some day soon, though.

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	13. Once Bitten

Disclaimer: I still don't own the vast majority of this story. The characters, events (and some dialogue) belong to BVE. No harm intended, and definitely no money made.

This is an episode interpretation of _Frax's Fury_ with a few extra scenes thrown in and a couple of minor plot nits thrown out. 

Please note: Canon junkies -- yes I **do** know that _Time Force Traitor_ should come before _Frax's Fury_, the switch is deliberate on the grounds that it makes more sense to me to do it that way.

Many thanks to Ekat (I'm writing this as fast as I can!) for beta'ing again and to Ecolea and Leathie (so glad you're back!) for the assorted help and support. For Gamine -- here's the longer chapter you wanted g

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing; glad you guys are enjoying it.

~*~

Identity -- Once Bitten

Wes puttered around the odd-jobs shop, trying not to feel bored out of his mind. He tried to remind himself that at least this time the reason he was stuck there was not because he was injured, but because he'd offered -- but that didn't improve the interest level any. It was still a deadly dull assignment.

The only reason he'd volunteered for it was because he'd spent most of the night suffering with an assortment of nightmares and disturbing dreams that had left him feeling more than a little washed out and tired. He half suspected that if he hadn't volunteered, Jen would have volunteered him to stay and mind the phone, judging by the ease with which she'd accepted his suggestion, but she hadn't needed to. Feeling like he did, the last thing he wanted to do was anything remotely physical.

Of course, all that didn't improve the interest level in the odd-jobs shop.

Sighing, he realised he'd been pacing the shop like a caged tiger and forced himself to sit down on the stool behind the counter. The problem, he reflected, with a night broken by very bad dreams was that on top of leaving him feeling tired, it also left him antsy, and he wasn't sure which feeling he liked less.

He tried going over the contents of his dreams to try and work out why they unsettled him, but there was nothing that really made any sense. He just had the feeling that something very big and very nasty was on the way. And given that since meeting Jen and the other rangers he'd had his parameters for 'big and nasty' redefined several times over, that did not fill him with any enthusiasm.

Breaking his train of thought, the odd-jobs shop door opened. Much to Wes' surprise, the person walking in was not a customer -- or at least, Wes assumed he wasn't a customer. Then again, Wes had recently seen the state of his back yard so maybe... _Nah._

"Hey Eric."

Eric looked a little startled -- in much the same way a deer looked startled in the headlights of a Mack truck.

"Eric?"

Eric blinked. "It's you."

"Yeah, last time I checked," Wes quipped.

"I thought it was Jen who was the boss."

Irrationally, Wes felt a pang of jealousy at that comment. Hastily he swallowed it and replied, "Commanding officer."

Eric shrugged. "Is she here?"

"Nope." Jealousy reared its head again. Again he fought it back. "You want to leave her a note?"

Eric seemed to consider this for a few moments. "No...you'll do." Wes raised his eyebrows. "I just wanted to..." Eric took a deep breath. "TellyouyouwererightandI'lltry."

"Excuse me?"

Eric grimaced. "You were right."

"About what?" Wes asked, wondering just which parallel universe he'd suddenly found himself in.

Eric glared again, but consented to explain, "With what you and Jen said, after Conwing. You were right." Wes flashed back to what had been said and finally some clarity dawned, along with some minor embarrassment at the feelings of jealousy. _You should have known Eric wasn't asking for Jen for anything other than 'business' reasons_. "I can't make any promises, but I will try."

Before Wes could say anything further, Eric pressed the Silver Guardian ear-piece to his ear and listened. "Control, I copy -- on my way." He glanced at Wes. "Gotta go." With that, he turned on his heel and left. Once alone again, Wes shook his head.

  
"Well that was weird."

In an odd way, the somewhat strange conversation had helped to ease some of the nebulous feeling of worry that the nightmares had left him with. That was something that should have actually made him feel better -- but if anything, it made him feel worse. _It means whatever is coming is **big**._

Wes sighed. Almost on cue, his morpher bleeped.

"Wes, we've got mutant trouble at the park," Jen announced as her holograph formed.

"On my way," Wes replied. As he headed out of the office, he was moved to wonder if this was 'it'...and got the sinking sensation that this was just the start.

~*~

Wes had thought that nothing was left that Ransik could do that would actually shock him, but on arriving at the park he realised this was far from true.

"My...God..."

Everywhere he looked, people were lying on the ground, all clearly in immense pain without any immediately apparent cause. Cautiously, he approached one -- a young woman. She didn't seem to even know he was there as she writhed in utter agony.

__

What the hell has happened here? he wondered. Then his eyes fell on a strange, bloody mark. _A bite mark?_

"Wes? Where are you?" Jen's voice came over the internal comm. system.

"Just got here -- where are you...and what the hell's going on?" Wes replied.

"We're...ouf... We're in the Japanese garden area."

"On my way."

Wes headed in the direction of the Japanese garden, noting that he appeared to be following a trail of casualties. _This is **not** good._ On reaching the oriental styled area, however, his assessment rapidly altered from 'not good' to 'disastrous'.

The mutant, a creature that strongly resembled the Flukeman creature out of the X-Files, was **fast** and was making apparently short work of the other rangers. But just as Wes started to move towards it, it grabbed Jen, and to his complete and utter horror, savagely bit her. A moment later and it released her. Before Wes' horrified gaze, she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Mmm! Rangers taste good!" it cackled. "Now who's next?"

"Oh no you don't!" Wes leapt into the battle, only to find himself being instantly flung backwards as the mutant made its move towards its next victim: Trip.

In the blink of an eye, it had bitten Trip and had moved on to Lucas, and then Katie.

"Now Red Ranger, it's your turn," it hissed.

There was a tiny voice at the back of his mind that screamed: Run before it gets you too. Wes ignored it - running wasn't an option. Instead, he prepared to stand and fight, but just as the mutant started in his direction, it was struck from behind by an energy blast.

"Huh?!" Wes peered round the mutant to see where the blast had come from.

"Huh?!" exclaimed the mutant, turning to see who had fired on it.

"Ransik?!" Wes couldn't believe his eyes.

The criminal mastermind was standing just a yard or so beyond the mutant, bone sword in hand and aimed squarely, not at the rangers, but at the mutant. And even more surprising was the mutant's visible reaction to the sight: Its knees started to tremble.

"You and I," Ransik hissed, "have some unfinished business!"

"R...r...ransik! I...you...y...you should be dead!" stammered the mutant.

"You will wish I was!" retorted Ransik.

__

Any second now, I'm gonna wake up and realise I dreamed this, Wes found himself thinking as Ransik launched an all out attack on the mutant. _This is **too** weird!_

Ransik drove the mutant back towards where Wes was standing. Hastily, he scrambled out of the way. Ransik didn't even spare him a glance.

"You bit me. You infected me with your venom. You cursed me. I **will** have my revenge."

The mutant frantically back-pedalled, trying to avoid Ransik's attacks and failing dismally. Ransik drove the creature up against the wall of the garden and lifted his sword for the final strike...

And then crashed to his knees in howling pain.

Wes watched on as Ransik's visible flesh started to warp and bubble in grotesque fashion. _I think I'm stuck in a bad episode of the Twilight Zone here._ Clearly seeing an escape opportunity, the mutant turned tail and ran.

Clearly oblivious to the mutant's escape, Ransik fumbled for the small pouch attached to his belt and finally succeeded in pulling out the contents: A small, glass vial, filled with a clear, neon blue coloured liquid. Hastily, he pulled the top off the vial and swallowed the contents. It took a few moments, but the liquid -- some kind of serum, Wes realised -- took effect. Ransik's screams of pain died away and the bubbling flesh settled back to its normal -- if equally grotesque -- state.

Ransik glared around the Japanese garden, looking for the mutant.

"**VENOMARK!**" Ransik brought his fist down on the paving in disgust at having lost the mutant and vanished.

__

You wanna run that by me again? Wes slowly shook his head, but was brought back to reality by a groan. _Oh crap..._ His gaze fell on the prone forms of his four team-mates and even the bizarre events of moments earlier faded from his mind. He could worry about Ransik and the mutant later -- right now; he needed to help his team-mates.

~*~

It had been a struggle to get the other rangers back to the clock tower. Jen was already out cold, Trip and Lucas almost so. Only Katie was conscious enough to help -- and that had taken a considerable amount of bullying on Wes' part. All four were now 'resting' on the upper level of the clock tower attic.

"I wish I knew what I could do," Wes muttered, pacing the main attic.

"Found him!" exclaimed Circuit.

Wes stopped mid stride and turned to face the mechanical owl. "What have you got?"

"Venomark -- he's an X-Vault mutant."

"And...?" Wes tried hard to keep his voice even, but he had a feeling that was a battle he'd lost.

Circuit almost shifted nervously. "I don't seem to have any further information, Wes."

"What do you mean?"

In so far as a robot could gulp, Circuit did. "All I can tell you is how lethal the bite is...and I'm sorta guessing you don't want to know that."

"What about a cure?"

This time, there was no mistaking it: Circuit gulped. "If there is one...I don't have details on it. His is a very old case file, Wes -- it's almost a miracle I have anything on him at all."

Wes closed his eyes. _No. I refuse to believe that's all there is._ "How long?"

"Forty-eight hours...from the time of infection until..." Circuit trailed off.

Wes swallowed. _Forty-eight hours..._

Jen started to scream. Before Wes could consciously think about it, he found himself on the upper level of the attic, even though he knew there was nothing he could do to help Jen, unless he could find a...

Wes stared, wide eyed, at Jen's unconscious form. Her skin seemed to be boiling and warping in exactly the same way that Ransik's had.

"It couldn't be that simple..."

But perhaps it could be. Ransik had said Venomark had bitten him -- and Ransik was still around to talk about it. That **had** to be it -- that neon blue liquid. Ransik had drunk all of what was contained in that vial, but he had left the empty vial behind. Surely there would be some residue on the glass.

Even if there was, what was he going to be able to do with it? It wasn't as if he knew enough about chemistry to replicate the liquid.

"Biolab does."

Wes grimaced. If he went to his father now...after everything he'd said and done... The humble pie would be choking -- but given the alternative of watching his friends and the rest of the city die agonising deaths, there was no choice to be made.

"Circuit -- keep an eye on them," Wes finally called. "I've got a hunch."

"You got it Wes."

~*~

Wes made his way through the park once more, heading straight for the Japanese garden area. It was a long shot that Ransik's vial would either be still intact or even contain enough residue to be any use, but it was a chance he had to take. It really wasn't as if he had any other options.

Shelving that thought as he reached the Japanese garden, he turned his attention to finding the vial.

"I was standing here," he muttered, "so Ransik must have been over...there." He set off across the garden to where he guessed the mutant overlord had collapsed.

The earth still bore the marks of Ransik's collapse, proving his guess correct. So where was the vial?

__

Please tell me they haven't already done trash collection.

Wes crouched down beside the patch of flattened dirt and started combing through it for any signs of the vial. Moments later and he found the vial's ornate silver stopper.

__

C'mon -- it's gotta be here.

Then finally, he found it. It had shattered when Ransik had dropped it, but -- miracle of miracles -- the base was intact and there was a small amount of the blue liquid in the bottom. Pulling out the Time Force evidence box he'd picked up on his way out of the clock tower, Wes put the chunk of glass into it and sealed it.

__

Now to go face dad...

~*~

What should have been a fifteen-minute bike ride across town only took Wes five. In the back of his mind he knew he should be taking more care of what he was doing, but the burning importance of what Biolab could do to help the city -- and his friends -- overrode more petty concerns like whether he was stopped for speeding.

Parking his bike outside the Biolab headquarters, Wes dashed inside the office, almost wiping out an unfortunate technician who happened to be walking out.

"Sorry...ouf!"

In glancing over his shoulder to apologise to the technician, he ran straight into someone else and rebounded off.

"Whoa!" complained the other person. "Where do you think you're going?"

Wes regained his balance and looked to find Eric looking more than somewhat put out. "I have to see my dad."

Eric rolled his eyes. "You know, he is kinda busy -- the city is under attack, in case you hadn't noticed."

Wes bit down on his temper. "I know," he gritted out. "My friends have been bitten."

Wes watched as Eric's expression rapidly went from irritated to worried. "I see." For a second, Wes wondered what Eric was up to. "This way." Much to Wes' surprise, he found himself being led up to his father's office by Eric. "Wait here." Eric knocked on the office door, then opened it and entered. "Ahem, Sir."

Wes couldn't see what his father's expression was, but he could well imagine it, and that imagining was borne out by the testy verbal response,

"Yes, Myers?"

For answer, Eric stepped aside and ushered Wes in. Nervously, Wes stepped around Eric and into the plush office. He noticed straight away that his father must have been in the middle of a meeting. The part of Wes that still vividly recalled the assorted dressing downs and chewing outs that he'd received for interrupting meetings cringed in anticipation of another. The rest of him ignored that and forced him to stand straight under his father's scrutiny.

"Excuse me gentlemen," his father said.

"Of course."

The three businessmen nodded and filed out. Wesley watched his father stand up behind the desk.

"Wesley."

Wes walked forwards towards the desk. "Dad...I...need your help."

Wes swallowed as he watched his father's expression turn scornful. "You don't come around here for weeks, and then when you do, you want a favour. What is it? You need money?"

"This isn't about me!" Wes exclaimed hotly. He swallowed again. _I'm not going to let him get to me._ More calmly he continued, "It's about the city. Everyone's sick."

"And?"

"And this could help them." Wes pulled the evidence box from his pocket and set it on the desk in front of his father.

"What is this?"

Wes didn't miss the note of interest in his father's voice. "It's the anti-venom."

"Where did you get it?"

Wes shook his head. "It doesn't matter -- what **is** important is that only Biolab has the technology to synthesise this...in time."

"In time?" Eric echoed from his position guarding the door.

Wes swallowed again. "The venom takes forty eight hours to act." There was a soft curse from Eric at that. His father's expression barely changed, but there was enough of a shift for Wes to know that the time scale disturbed his father too.

"Forty eight hours...and the attack started...?"

"Ten o'clock this morning, Sir," Eric responded.

Wes watched as his father nodded. "Eric -- get this down to Dr Zaskin. Tell him to get right on it -- give him the details."

"Sir." Eric stepped forward and collected the evidence box.

Not wishing to remain in his father's presence any longer, Wes turned to follow Eric.

"This could be a gold mine."

Wes winced and said nothing. There was no conceivable reply.

~*~

"You're making me dizzy," Eric complained, "and pacing isn't going to make Zaskin work any faster."

Wes realised he had been pacing the cramped office Eric apparently rated as Silver Guardians commander and forced himself to sit. "Sorry."

Eric shook his head, although whether it was in sorrow or amusement Wes couldn't tell. "What's with the pacing anyway?"

Wes shrugged. "I guess I'm just worried." That wasn't all of it, not by a long shot. There was still the sense of impending doom that had been hanging over him since the previous night, and which had only got worse in the light of Venomark's attack, but Wes wasn't quite ready to confide that to Eric.

"Must be nice to have friends to worry about."

Wes stared. "Excuse me?"

There was a faint air of embarrassment tinged with defiance about Eric. "You heard me."

When Trip had suggested Eric was lonely, Wes had dismissed the suggestion as absurd. It was rather harder to ignore in the face of an almost direct admission -- although it didn't make swallowing the idea any easier.

"But you do," Wes finally said.

It was Eric's turn to look confused. "I do what?"

"Have friends." On impulse, Wes added, "Me -- the other rangers..."

Eric snorted. "Nice try -- I know **they** don't like me."

Wes shrugged. "They would if you gave 'em the chance."

"Maybe." It was clearly Eric's last word on the subject.

Wes took the hint and lapsed into silence. Moments later, Eric rummaged around in one of the draws of his desk, produced a small radio and turned it on. After a second's fiddling, the radio started playing assorted rock tracks from a local oldies station.

"You don't mind?" Eric asked.

Wes shrugged. "Your office."

Eric grunted and turned his attention to the pile of paper work sitting on his desk. Wes settled back in his own seat and the waiting began.

~*~

__

He was hemmed in. Nowhere to turn...no friends to turn to...on his own. It wasn't their fault. They couldn't help it -- it had been someone else's doing. It was all someone else's doing. Everything was wrong. Someone was in danger. He had to go there...but where? Who? Then he was there...wherever there was and he could see who needed his help. Jen. No...

Wes woke suddenly, unsure where he was. He hadn't even realised he'd fallen asleep until the nightmare had woken him again. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing heartbeat and looked around his surroundings. Eric's office -- although in the dim light it was difficult to tell -- which meant he was still at Biolab, still waiting for Dr Zaskin to finish synthesising the serum to cure Venomark's victims.

The office door opened and the light clicked on. Wes gave an involuntary groan at the sudden burst of light.

"Sorry," Eric commented.

"Whassa time?" Wes slurred.

"A little after 2am. Zaskin's just finished the first batch and it's been tested."

That brought a little more clarity to Wes' mind. "Tested?"

"A couple of the guardians got bitten this afternoon."

"And...?" Wes held his breath. Was his assumption correct?

Eric nodded. "Works within seconds." Wes found himself sagging back into his seat in relief. He'd been right. "We've got the Silver Guardians couriering it to all the hospitals and clinics in the metropolitan area. And..." Eric produced a small, black hard case. "Here's what you need for...your friends."

Wes didn't miss the moment's hesitation in Eric's words. Maybe it was too big a step for him to admit they were friends just yet. _Sooner or later you're going to have to realise it, Eric,_ Wes mused. Aloud, he just said, "Thanks Eric."

Eric held the case out. "You'd better get going."

Wes accepted the case. "Yeah."

~*~

He didn't remember much of the journey back to the clock tower. He suspected he'd been speeding again -- but that seemed immaterial. Time was rapidly running out. When he reached the clock tower, he took the stairs three at a time in his haste to get up to the attic.

"Wes!" Circuit exclaimed.

"Any change?"

"No." Circuit sounded doleful.

Wes smiled as he sprinted up to the upper level of the attic. "I have the cure here." _I hope._ In spite of Eric's assertion it worked, Wes knew he wouldn't truly believe it until he'd seen it in action.

"A cure?!"

"Uh-huh."

"But how?"

"Later." Wes turned his attention to his first patient, Lucas. Taking the first of four vials from the case, he carefully shook Lucas by the shoulders. "C'mon Lucas -- you need to drink this."

It took a few minutes before Lucas managed to salvage enough consciousness to do as Wes asked him. Once Wes was sure Lucas wouldn't choke on the serum, he moved on and repeated the process with Trip and then Katie. As he moved towards Jen, he was aware that Lucas was now sitting up in bed -- something that finally destroyed whatever doubts he'd still had.

Jen, however was a much more difficult proposition. Although she had been bitten only marginally before the others it seemed to have affected her that much more. He shook her gently by the shoulders.

"C'mon Jen -- please. Y'gotta wake up and drink this..." Instinctively he helped her to sit up and held the last vial to her lips. "Please."

It was agonising, waiting to see if she would drink. The seconds seemed to stretch into hours before finally, Jen showed some signs of swallowing the liquid. A moment more passed and the serum started to take affect. Wes released a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

"That stuff tastes revolting!" Jen finally groaned.

Wes released his hold on her shoulders and stepped back. "Right at this moment, I don't care how it tastes -- just so long as it works!"

Jen chuckled weakly.

"How did you find the cure, Wes?" Circuit asked.

Wes explained. There were a few sympathetic winces when he mentioned his father's reaction. "It's not like I had a lot of choice," he finished.

"No," Jen agreed. "But presumably Venomark is still on the loose?"

Wes nodded a little reluctantly. "'Fraid so."

"Then let's go save the city."

~*~

It took most of the rest of the night to track Venomark down -- but once they did, it took a surprisingly short period of time to defeat him, particularly with Eric's help. Aided by the Mega Battle armour, he softened the mutant up then the rest of the rangers had taken Venomark down for good as the last vestiges of night disappeared from the sky.

Eric had vanished the instant the mutant had been dispatched, before anyone could say thanks to him. Wes suspected that there was an element of embarrassment in the hasty departure since the battle had amply displayed how much stronger the six of them were if they worked as a team. The rest of them had headed back to the clock tower. In the cases of Jen, Lucas, Katie and Trip, they headed straight to bed. As Lucas summed it up,

"I feel like three day old crap."

Wes himself felt utterly drained after having spent somewhere in the region of thirty hours awake but in view of what the others had been through, he offered to mind the phone until they felt more themselves.

All of which meant that he was back where he'd been the previous morning when the whole mess had begun. He shook his head. _Life really is circular, I guess._

He sighed as he recalled the nightmare he'd suffered from in Eric's office -- the same one as had broken his sleep before. Had Venomark's capture dimmed the sense of doom? Worryingly, there was no change.

Whatever it was, it was still coming.

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	14. Twice Shy

Disclaimer: They're still not mine and I'm still not making money out of this. All hail BVE!

This is loosely based around the events of _Time Force Traitor_ although it's not the direct interpretation that previous chapters have been. It follows on directly from _Once Bitten._

Although I've not mentioned it in recent chapters, none of this would be possible without the wonderful sirSTACK and the PRSW website. I also owe a large vote of thanks to Gamine and Selma (for the various bits and pieces of plot chewing and cattle prodding they've both done), Ecolea (for occasional prodding and having the faith in me to know I'd get this done when I was starting to wonder) and most especially to Ekat for all of the above and more. 

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing; glad you guys are enjoying it

~*~

Identity -- Twice Shy

It was lunchtime before Wes heard any movement from his sleeping team-mates, by which time he had long since started to feel punchy and tired. Lack of sleep was not the sole reason he felt that way -- there was also the sense of impending doom that had been plaguing him since the day before and on top of that was a minor bout of worry for the health of his team-mates.

__

Worry for Jen, more like, he admitted silently. Venomark's bite had definitely affected her more than it had the rest of the team and while he was sure the serum had worked, he wasn't sure what lasting affects there might be.

Almost as if to dispel that worry, Jen appeared at the bottom of the stairs, bearing a cup of coffee.

"Hey."

Wes smiled. "How're you feeling?"

"A **lot** better," Jen admitted, sipping her drink. "Thank you."

Wes smiled. "You're welcome."

"Anything much happened down here?" she asked, coming to lean against the counter.

"Not really..." Almost on cue, the telephone rang. Jen snickered softly. Wes poked his tongue out at her and reached over to answer it. "Nick of Time Odd Jobs."

"You do odd jobs, I presume?" queried the caller.

Wes rolled his eyes. "Yes we do -- can we help you?"

"Yes -- I would like to hire you. It's for some unloading and order sorting this afternoon."

"No problem. Where would you like us to be?"

"Loading bay twelve of the industrial complex on Fairfax Street at 2pm."

Wes wrote the instructions down. "You've got it, sir -- we'll be there."

"Thank you! See you this afternoon."

Wes put the receiver down. "We have a job."

"No kidding," Jen replied, smirking. "Doing what?" Wes handed her the index card he'd just written out. "Ooh, sounds like fun," she murmured sarcastically.

"Hey, you were the one who said 'we'll do anything as long as it pays'," Wes reminded her.

"I know." She sighed. "Guess we'd better go tell the rest of the gang what's going on and then you," she added, poking him in the chest, "are going to get some sleep."

"What? But..."

"Ah, ah," Jen admonished. "You look like hell. You took care of us yesterday -- let us take care of you today. Besides," she added, "you can barely keep your eyes open as it is. How do you expect to help unload something?"

  
Wes gave up. It wasn't a battle he was going to win -- and he wasn't sure he wanted to win anyway. Nightmares not withstanding, sleep was starting to look very, very appealing. "All right. I'll be good."

Jen turned to head back up the stairs. "There's a first time for everything, I suppose."

~*~

__

He was hemmed in. Nowhere to turn...no friends to turn to...on his own. It wasn't their fault. They couldn't help it -- it had been someone else's doing. It was all someone else's doing. Everything was wrong. Someone was in danger. He had to go there...but where? Who? Then he was there...wherever there was and he could see who needed his help. Jen. No...

Wes woke with a start. The nightmare again. This was starting to get really old.

"...I thought the guy was going to have a heart attack, Katie," Lucas was exclaiming.

"Shush -- not so loud!" Katie retorted. "You'll wake Wes."

"'Sok 'm already awake," Wes called.

As he moved to sit up, there was a clatter on the steps up to the sleeping area, and Katie appeared, followed by Trip and Lucas.

"We didn't wake you, did we?" Trip asked, looking concerned.

Wes managed to dredge up a smile. "No."

"See?!" muttered Lucas and then winced as Katie hit him. "What was that for?"

Wes' smile widened. In the light of his friends' antics it was easier to dismiss the remnants of the nightmare. "So how was the odd job?"

"Fun," Trip replied.

"Tedious," said Lucas.

"Weird," Katie answered.

"It can't have been all of those," Wes objected.

"Well...maybe it was kinda fun," Lucas admitted.

"No...you were right, it was tedious," Trip contributed.

"It was definitely weird," said Katie firmly.

Wes groaned and shook his head. "You're impossible, you know that?"

Lucas and Trip smirked.

  
"It was definitely weird," Katie insisted. "It felt like there was someone watching us."

Wes frowned. "Watching you?"

"Uh-huh. Really spooky. Jen thought she saw someone on top of the next building...I didn't but there was definitely something wrong."

"Weird," Wes agreed. "Where is Jen, anyway?"

"Picking up some groceries," said Lucas, turning to head back to the main attic. "She'll be back soon."

"Oh, right." Wes nodded. "Guess I'd better get up then, huh?"

"We'll leave you to get dressed in peace," said Katie. "C'mon Trip."

Moments later and Wes was alone in the sleeping area again. Shaking his head, he climbed out of his sleeping bag and started to pull on his clothing. He did feel better for the sleep, in spite of again waking up thanks to the nightmare, although he knew he would feel better when Jen had returned. It was absurd to place such faith in a nightmare and yet there was the nagging sense that it wasn't stupid at all. Sighing, he attempted to shelve the matter and headed down to the main attic.

~*~

An hour passed.

Wes got slowly more and more antsy. There was something wrong, he knew there was.

"Where was she getting these groceries from? The Wal-Mart in Mariner Bay?" he finally asked, naming the next town up the coast.

"She has been gone a long time," Trip agreed.

Wes shook his head. "I'm going..." but he never finished the sentence as Jen stumbled into the attic. "Jen?!" As her legs started to give under her, Wes dived forward and caught her. "What happened?"

"I'm fine," she mumbled.

"You don't look it," Lucas retorted, and Wes couldn't disagree.

Her face was bruised and scratched, while her clothing was mussed. It looked as though she'd had an argument with a gang of Cyclobots, and the Cyclobots had won.

She appeared to rest for a moment in Wes' arms before firmly pushing away from him and through the rest of the rangers who had circled protectively, heading in the direction of the holoscreen. Stunned by her actions, Wes could only turn and watch as Jen input a series of keystrokes on the holoscreen's keypad. A second passed and an image formed.

"Logan here."

__

Why does she need to talk to him? Wes wondered, his confusion rapidly mounting. _What could have possibly happened that she needs to talk to Captain Logan?_

"Sir..." Jen hesitated. "Steelix has been released."

The way she said it, Wes could judge that this was not a good thing and when he added in the expressions on the faces of Trip, Lucas and Katie and Logan's reaction not good became very bad. But...

"Who is Steelix?" he asked. Katie and Lucas both shook their heads.

"That is very bad news," Logan was stating. "You know he'll be coming after you."

Jen winced. "He already found me."

Katie and Lucas exchanged a glance. Wes' confusion mounted and found an ally in his earlier worry. Something was not just wrong but very wrong.

"Can you send Circuit all his Time Force records?" Jen continued. "I'm going to need every bit of information about him."

"We'll get on it right away," Logan answered. "Be careful Jen, you know he'll stop at nothing to get you."

"Sir -- I will, sir." Jen nodded.

"Logan out."

Jen cut the connection.

"Files received," Circuit confirmed a moment later.

"Collate them and start scanning for anything that would point out where he would be in this time period," Jen snapped.

"You got it."

Silence fell.

Wes could stand it no longer.

"All right. Would someone please fill me in here: Who is Steelix?" The glare that Jen turned on him almost made him take a step back. He didn't think he'd **ever** seen her that angry.

Seeing that Jen wasn't about to answer, Lucas said quietly, "He was Jen's first partner in Time Force...but he went rogue."

"Rogue?" Wes echoed, although he had a nasty suspicion he could guess what the term was going to mean.

"Bad," clarified Katie.

"Bad?" Jen snorted. "He was so crooked..." Her sentence trailed off and she swallowed. That was when Wes realised that her anger wasn't directed at him but more at herself and at Steelix for whatever he had done to her. In a slightly calmer tone of voice she explained, "He was selling Time Force secrets...information on where and when busts would be and how many officers would be involved...to people like Ransik...and to think I was so **blind** when I was first partnered with him. All I could think of was the prestige of being his partner."

Wes lifted his eyebrows.

"Steelix was the first mutant to join Time Force," Katie explained. "He made history and he was responsible for changing so many biases within Time Force. When I went to the TF Academy, he was required reading...he did so much **good**..."

"Then he got greedy?" Wes suggested, beginning to fit the pieces together.

"Uh-huh." Jen nodded. "No-one knows how long he'd been selling information when I uncovered it. He covered his tracks really well. It was only when he offered to cut me in on his deal after I'd overheard something I wasn't supposed to that anything came to light."

"There was a trial," Lucas continued. "Kept quiet because the authorities didn't want to undo the good Steelix had done along the way." Wes nodded. "He was found guilty and he was sentenced to cryogenic prison for twenty years."

"Because he was my partner, I was the officer in charge of seeing him to the prison," Jen finished. "So I saw him into the cryo-freeze...and he vowed that he'd get even with me."

Wes glanced from Lucas to Katie to Trip, who'd stayed silent during the explanations although he'd clearly known the story before his gaze settled on Jen. All four of them looked worried and with good reason -- still, if Time Force had captured Steelix first time round, there was absolutely no reason to believe the five of them couldn't capture him this time round.

"He doesn't stand a chance against five rangers," he stated.

"You mean four," Jen retorted, holding up her left arm and revealing her wrist was bear of any kind of device. "He took my morpher."

That statement brought down a horrified silence. Even Wes' natural optimism took a knock at that. Into that silence, the bleep of his morpher was unnaturally loud. Automatically he moved to answer the bleep but he was jarred out of the autopilot response when the holograph formed.

Steelix -- and Wes assumed that was who it was -- looked thoroughly villainous. He looked faintly robotic, all though the way his face moved to express his surprise on seeing Wes' face demonstrated that it wasn't metal but silvery skin, and either had a silver Mohawk haircut or was wearing some kind of outlandish, spiked hat.

"Ransik told me you were dead. What a let down. Never mind -- I'll finish the job."

"What do you want, Steelix?" Jen hissed.

"Aah Jennifer -- so **good** to hear your voice. You **know** what I want."

"When and where?"

Steelix chuckled. "Nice to see you haven't learned any patience in my absence. Such a pity." His tone turned colder. "The warehouse. Fairfax Street." He leered. "Where I was watching you this afternoon."

"You..."

"Ah! No names. That's not nice," Steelix admonished. "You have two hours. And you'd better come alone or..." Steelix chuckled. "You don't want to know what I'll do if you don't."

The connection cut and a thick and choking silence descended.

"What did he mean?" Katie finally ventured, voicing the question that had been bothering Wes.

Jen's shoulders slumped. "He wants me to face him."

"You're not going to do that are you?!" Even as he said it, though, Wes knew she was planning to do just that.

"I don't have a choice, Wes," Jen stated, resigned. "I know what he'll do if I don't and it involves a lot of innocent people getting hurt." Wes winced. "Besides, facing him is the only way I can get my morpher back."

~*~

The plan sucked.

Everyone knew it did.

__

But no-one's saying so because this is how it's gotta be played. Wes thought in disgust. _Our biggest weapon is that we work well as a **team** and Steelix has eliminated it._

The plan was that Jen would go to the warehouse for the appointed rendezvous. She would face Steelix and regain her morpher and the instant it was reactivated, the rest of them would join her and they'd jointly take out Steelix like so much trash. The obvious hole in the plan that Wes could see was what happened if Steelix activated the morpher for himself, but no-one else seemed worried about that.

"He can't," Trip had tried to explain. "The morpher belongs to Jen and she's the only person who can use it to morph. He can use the comm. functions, but nothing beyond that."

"But...I'm using Alex's morpher," Wes had objected.

"That doesn't matter."

Wes wanted to object further, but Circuit claimed Trip's attention on something else and there was no-one else who knew quite as much about the hardware, so Wes had shelved his doubts, taking it on trust that the others knew what they were doing.

There was one other hole in the plan, but that was something Wes didn't even want to acknowledge. What would happen if the morpher was never reactivated?

"Are we all set?" Jen asked, trying to sound confident.

"You go get him," said Lucas nodding. "Show him Time Force isn't something to mess with."

Jen nodded shortly and turned to leave. Hesitating, she turned to look in Wes' direction. "You do understand?"

__

I wish I didn't. "Yes."

She gave him a smile. "We're rangers -- we come out on top."

Wes tried to smile back but the memory of his nightmare suddenly surged forward sending a frisson of fear straight up his spine and instead of a smile, it was all he could do not to yell: You can't do this!

Jen looked a little disappointed. She gave a slight shrug and turned towards the door.

"Good luck," called Trip and Katie.

"Thanks guys."

Jen left the attic. A few moments later and the sound of the wind chimes that hung just inside the odd jobs shop floated up to them, indicating that Jen had headed out and that the waiting had begun.

~*~

Time slowed to an absolute crawl.

Wes tried to concentrate on something -- anything -- to take his mind off worrying, but nothing worked. In the finish, he headed down to the odd jobs shop and started to almost frantically pace the shop floor.

He hated waiting.

He didn't know how the others could be so calm.

__

Because they're not the ones who've been suffering with this damn recurring nightmare of seeing Jen in trouble, he finally realised. There were other reasons that this was affecting him more than the others, but even though he'd admitted his feelings about Jen he was still loath to actually name them. It wasn't as if those feelings were getting him anywhere except possibly several steps closer to an ulcer.

His pacing slowed. It was pointless to waste energy he'd need when the time came to face off Steelix, he realised, and it wasn't as if it was making him feel any less tense.

As he turned to complete his hundredth circuit of the shop, there was a loud clatter from above as presumably Lucas, Trip and Katie started to descend the stairs in a hurry. That, Wes realised, could only mean one thing. Sure enough, as Lucas -- who was leading the descent -- reached the shop floor, he announced,

"Jen's morpher's been activated."

Relief flooded through Wes at that confirmation. "Then let's go finish this."

~*~

The warehouse looked, to Wes' eyes, thoroughly sinister as he and the other rangers reached it.

__

I don't like this one little bit, he mused. _This is too easy._

As they entered the warehouse, Steelix turned to face them.

"Aah -- I've been expecting you. You're too late." He stepped aside and showed Jen's prone, unmorphed form.

"What have you done to her?" Wes hissed, his anger boiling up, even as the remnants of his nightmare floated to the front of his mind.

  
"You'll find out soon enough," Steelix promised with a chuckle before turning and running.

"We've got it covered," said Lucas before Wes could do anything. "You stay here with Jen."

Wes watched as Lucas, Trip and Katie took off after the fleeing mutant. Then he turned his attention to Jen, who was starting to come round. Demorphing, Wes moved to crouch beside her.

  
"Jen? Are you OK?" She blinked a couple of times and slowly sat up. "Jen?" He helped her back to her feet -- still she said nothing. "Are you OK?"

Suddenly, and to Wes' surprise, she pushed away from him and staggered forward a couple of steps. He could only look on in fast mounting horror as every line of her bearing subtly changed into something far more hostile. Slowly, she turned to face him.

"I'm **fine**," she hissed.

Wes couldn't help but gulp at the sight he was faced with. Under the poor lighting of the warehouse, Jen's skin appeared to have taken on a pale cast while her eyes seemed to be shining with an unholy, reddish light. Combined to the snarl that was marring her features, she looked utterly demonic.

"Jen...?"

In a flash, she had leapt for him, landing a powerful kick to his chest. Not expecting it, Wes went down and skidded backwards into a pile of boxes. Starbursts of pain exploded through his back and shoulders. He tried to ignore it and regain his feet, but Jen was onto him before he could succeed. She grabbed a handful of his shirt, hauled him to his feet, only to knee him in the stomach. Then, as he doubled over, she lashed out with a kick that was aimed squarely at his head.

He managed to deflect it fractionally, but it still caught him full on the shoulder and it sent him back against the boxes.

"Jen...what are you doing?" he wheezed, trying to regain his breath.

She snarled and stepped closer, clearly intending to grab him again. He dived passed her, evading her grasp.

As he rolled to his feet, she whipped around to face him again.

"C'mon Jen...I don't want to fight you..."

"Then don't," she hissed.

She launched a ferocious attack that Wes found himself hard pushed to defend against and it certainly left him no time to try and figure out how to break whatever it was that Steelix had done.

__

I've got to start fighting back or this isn't going to last too much longer -- she has no compunction about hurting me...

He caught the next kick, fully intending to take out the leg she was standing on but before he could move, she had leapt into the air and kicked him in the side of his head. The blow sent him stumbling backwards, stunned. She followed up with another set of fast paced blows, not allowing him to recover.

"Please...you've gotta remember."

Jen just snarled in reply and launched herself at him in a flying tackle. The move took Wes off his feet again and they both crashed to the floor. The landing knocked the wind out of him again, but it presented him with an opening. While Jen might be fighting with insane strength brought about by whatever Steelix had done to her, she was not strong enough to pin him to the ground, and, Wes realised triumphantly, she wasn't strong enough to throw him off.

It took several moments of grappling but finally, Wes succeeded in pinning Jen to the ground.

"C'mon Jen -- remember. We're on the same side." She wriggled, trying to dislodge him, but his bigger bulk combined with his determination meant her efforts were in vain. "Don't give in to Steelix -- please. You beat him once, you can beat him again." Still she struggled. "I'm not going to give up, Jen -- I know you're in there." Still she fought against him. "C'mon Jen...please. Fight this. For Lucas, Trip and Katie...they're your friends. They need your help." Her struggles finally seemed to lessen. "For Alex...he wouldn't have wanted you to give up." Her struggles weakened again. "For me," he finally whispered, "because I love you too much to give up on you."

With alarming suddenness, Jen's body went limp, but Wes didn't dare release his hold. Long, agonising moments passed before she finally regained consciousness. He tensed, waiting to see what was going to happen.

"Wes, what the hell are you doing?"

"Jen?"

"No, I'm Katie," Jen snapped. "Get off me!"

In relief, Wes released his hold and moved to sit beside Jen as she sat up. "You're OK?"

"I didn't know there'd been anything wrong with me," Jen retorted.

"You don't remember Steelix doing something to you?"

Jen frowned. "I have a hazy memory of something...then the next thing I know, you're sitting on me." She glanced over at him. "What happened to you?" She reached out and touched one of the bruises on his face. He flinched.

"Um...it's a long story," he replied. Jen raised her eyebrows. "It'll keep until we've dealt with Steelix."

"OK." She got to her feet and offered him a hand up. "But I'm holding you to that."

Wes smiled and nodded. "You got it."

~*~

In the finish, Steelix had been so disheartened on seeing Jen that the battle hadn't lasted much beyond their arrival, Wes noted, and that wasn't something he was complaining about. He ached! On one level, he had always known Jen was an excellent fighter, but he really hadn't wanted it demonstrating at such close quarters.

__

And I've somehow got to explain to Jen what happened... That was something he wasn't looking forward to.

"Penny for them?" Jen asked, coming out onto the clock tower balcony.

"They're not worth that much," Wes replied.

"OK. So...you wanna tell me who hit you?"

"Um...you did."

"I did?" Jen echoed. Hesitantly, Wes explained what had happened. Jen looked steadily more and more horrified. "Oh my... I am...I mean...I..."

Wes shook his head and winced a little bit. "It's OK -- it wasn't **you**."

"But...still...I..."

Looking a mix of horrified, guilty and embarrassed, Jen vanished back inside before Wes could stop her. Somehow that reaction hurt more than the physical injuries she'd inflicted under the influence of whatever it was that Steelix had done to her.

__

She just needs time to think it through...she knows it wasn't her fault, he tried to tell himself, but the words felt hollow.

From growing steadily closer, there was now a huge block between them and Wes knew of no way to remove it.

And then, almost as if to make matters worse, the sense of doom returned. He had thought, when he'd seen Jen lying prone on the warehouse floor, that this was what his intuition had been warning him about, but now...

__

What the hell could possibly be worse than this?

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	15. Fate And Future

Disclaimer: Really, the characters and events don't belong to me, nor am I making any kind of money out of this.

This would be the big one. This is an interpretation of the Destiny arc (_Dawn of Destiny, Fight Against Fate_ and _Destiny Defeated_).

With thanks to Ecolea and Ekat for the nit picking, beta'ing and inspiration -- you both deserve medals for putting up with me! Also to Selma and Gamine who've both put up with me moaning -- yes, it's finally done!

Judging by feedback I've received, this is the one people have been waiting for -- I hope you enjoy it!

~*~

Identity -- Fate And Future

After the previous two, hectic and stress filled days, Wes was hoping for a quiet day -- or at least a day with no life-threatening crisis -- as he got up. In spite of his gnawing suspicion that whatever was bugging his intuition hadn't actually happened yet, he'd managed a full night's sleep and, even though he was still more than a little sore from fighting with Jen, essentially he felt good.

Of course, there was the small matter of Jen to be dealt with. The trouble was, he had no real idea of how to solve the problem. He had accepted that the second Jen had attacked him it wasn't **her**, just some sort of...he grimaced at the phrase...spell-induced personality that Steelix had created. Unfortunately, Jen had no memory of what had happened and when he'd told her...

Wes winced in remembrance. She'd been mortified.

She'd spent the rest of the evening studiously avoiding him; presumably either embarrassed or assuming that he blamed her...or possibly a combination of the two. Either way, it wasn't something that could continue...but how to fix the problem?

Wes reached the floor of the main attic. No-one was around. Jen was presumably down in the shop working on something. Lucas was still in the process of getting up, while Katie and Trip's location was a mystery. He began screwing up his courage enough to go down to the shop and broach the subject with Jen when Trip and Katie burst into the attic from downstairs.

"Look at the antique we just found," Trip exclaimed, holding it out for Wes to see.

Wes looked and couldn't help but laugh. "Trip -- that is **not** an antique!"

The object in Trip's hands was a modern Polaroid camera that Wes had seen in amongst the junk in the odd-job shop. He had wondered on several occasions just where it had come from, but short of finding the original shop owner, he doubted he'd ever know that.

"Here, Trip -- take a picture of me," Katie ordered.

  
"Sure."

Wes moved to step aside to allow Katie to pose and suddenly found himself being dragged into shot.

That seemed to be the cue for fifteen minutes of pure madness as Trip, Katie and Lucas, who magically seemed to appear at the idea of having his picture taken, went crazy with the camera, snapping everything in sight. Wes found himself quickly being swept up in the mayhem to the point that when Jen entered the attic, his first reaction was to run up to her and kiss her on the cheek and Katie, being the master of timing that she was, snapped a picture just as he did so.

Wes instantly knew his mistake.

Jen glared angrily at him, shrugged out of his grip and stepped away from him.

"You guys!" she admonished. "We've got to keep focused on our mission." She batted the other three away from the holoscreen. "Every day that we're here, we jeopardise the future."

"How?" Wes asked, and then almost cringed in preparation for the lecture.

Jen glared, but surprisingly she didn't immediately bite his head off for asking. "Take this serum," she explained, punching up data about it on the holoscreen. "It shouldn't have been discovered for another eight hundred years."

"I can go to Biolab and..."

Jen shook her head. "That's just it, Wes -- you **can't** just go to Biolab and get it back. You can't un-invent things."

"You're saying I shouldn't have done what I did."

Again, Jen shook her head. "There was nothing else you could have done there, but we've **got** to be more careful."

Wes sighed. He thought about what Jen had just said. "I know you can't un-invent things," he mused, "but I can get Biolab to not disclose anything about the serum."

"You can do that?" echoed Trip, sounding surprised.

Wes smiled faintly. "Well I can try."

Jen nodded. "Do it."

~*~

Fifteen minutes later, Wes found himself wandering down the hallways of the Biolab complex. He knew there was no way he would be able to talk his father out of disclosing data on the serum but... There were other ways of preventing that.

As he recalled, all the synthesis data had been stored on computer and, while he didn't know a great deal about computers, he did know several neat ways of wrecking them -- or at least of removing the data from them. Without the data, and providing he could then manage to destroy the remaining serum, Biolab would stand no chance of replicating it. It wouldn't be a perfect solution, but it would be better than nothing.

He came to a halt outside the relevant lab and listened at the door. It sounded empty. With a glance in either direction along the hallway, Wes entered.

Sure enough, the lab was empty of personnel. Quickly, he made his way over to the bank of three computer terminals sitting on the lab's desk and started them up. While waiting for them to boot, he rooted through the desk drawers for any back-up disks and hand written notes. What he found he pocketed, noting that he'd have to destroy them later.

A glance at the computers showed they were fully booted, so Wes turned his attention to them. He felt a pang of guilt as he wondered if he was about to destroy any of his father's other projects, but a swift look through the stored files cured that. The standard Biolab operating system was to only carry data on current projects on any of the lab terminals, which were not on the main network for security reasons. Once the project was completed and publicised, then it was transferred to the main network and removed from the lab terminals.

"And you always said I never paid attention to your systems, dad," Wes murmured as he brought up a c-prompt. "Guess I paid more attention than you thought." He typed in the command to format the hard drive and moved on to the next terminal.

Within ten minutes the damage was done and all three terminals were rendered useless. It would take, from Wes' previous experience, take a computer tech several hours to re-install all the operating software for each machine -- once they'd established that the damage hadn't been done by a virus -- and even after doing that the data would be unrecoverable.

That was stage one done. Now to find the remaining stock of serum and...

"What are you doing here?"

Wes started. Looking up, he saw Eric leaning in the doorway. "Eric."

"Wes." Eric smiled grimly. "Next time you wanna come in here and vandalise things, make sure you pick a lab that doesn't have CCTV." Reflexively, Wes looked round and spotted the camera in the corner squarely covering the computers. Stepping into the lab, Eric added, "Smile, you're on Candid Camera. Now hand over the notes."

__

Oh crap. "Eric, listen to me..."

Eric shook his head. "No, Wes -- you listen to me for a change. Maybe you don't realise this, but right now, I am the only thing between you and a jail term for theft and vandalism." Wes felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. "I can arrange for an...accident to happen to the tapes of the last fifteen minutes in here -- say that there was a systems glitch or that the vandal destroyed the camera, but I can't cover for you stealing the notes. Your dad is more than sharp enough to add one and one, Wes."

"But..." Eric held a hand out and made a 'give' motion with it. Reluctantly, Wes pulled the disks and sheaf of papers from his jacket pocket and handed it over. "Why?"

Eric replaced them in their respective drawers. "Because I figure I owe you for what you did after Conwing."

"Does it matter to you that this serum isn't supposed to be invented for another eight hundred years?"

  
Eric shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it."

"You could let me keep those notes."

"And visit you in jail. I told you, your dad isn't that stupid." Eric drew his blaster, aimed and fired on the camera, slagging it. "Now get the hell outa here before I change my mind on that tape accident."

Wes had no choice but to leave. There was always the chance that the notes alone wouldn't be enough to reconstruct the destroyed data but...

__

I'm not that lucky.

~*~

Wes was almost back to the clock tower when his morpher bleeped.

"Wes?" Trip's hologram formed. "We've got trouble."

"What's up?" Wes asked.

"Circuit's detected a mutant in the park -- we'll meet you there."

Wes nodded. "On my way."

As he cut the connection, though, he was forced to acknowledge the déjà vu of the situation. It had only been two days ago that he'd received the same kind of message from Jen about a mutant in the park. And as he noted that piece of déjà vu, the vague premonition of doom resurfaced.

__

Not another Venomark. Please.

Not wasting another second, Wes turned and started for the park.

~*~

When he arrived, he found a very different scene to the one that had greeted him two days earlier. The mutant was purple and robotic looking -- and was copping a pasting from Katie and Lucas -- while Trip and Jen were busily engaged in taking on the veritable army of Cyclobots.

"Wes don't just stand there!" Jen yelled over the internal comm. system.

__

Well if she's pissed at me at least she can't be avoiding me, Wes mused as he waded into the Cyclobots. He wasn't sure if that was an improvement.

Then there wasn't time or space to have idle thoughts. For each Cyclobot Wes destroyed three more stepped into its place and he was hard pushed to keep from being overwhelmed.

Kick. Punch. Block. Throw. 

Wes lost count of how many Cyclobots he disposed of. There seemed to be a never-ending stream of them.

Dodge. Parry. Lunge. Avoid.

"There's something not right about this," Jen observed somewhat breathlessly as she elbowed a convenient robot. "Ransik never sends **this** many Cyclobots."

Block. Punch. Parry. Kick.

Wes knew he was running on pure adrenaline now. His body was tired and his reactions were slowing.

And just when he was beginning to doubt whether he could go on much longer, the mutant exploded in an intense display of chrono-freezing energy. On cue, the few remaining Cyclobots vanished.

"And what," Jen wondered as they demorphed, "do you suppose that was all about?" Looks were exchanged between all five rangers.

"It felt like it was some kind of distraction," Lucas mused.

"Which means Ransik is up to something." Jen shook her head. "We've **got** to capture him before the future changes."

"It already has."

Wes felt prickles of cold fear at the call from the strange voice. It sounded eerily familiar but he couldn't place it. He looked around for the source, aware that the other rangers were doing the same.

  
"Oh my..." breathed Katie. "Look!"

Wes looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a man walking towards them, dressed in the white leather Time Force uniform and wearing mirrored shades similar to the pair Jen had been wearing the first time Wes had met her.

"That's why I'm here," the officer continued, "to set it back on track." He halted right in front of Jen and slowly pulled down the shades.

Wes watched as Jen paled and murmured, "Alex?"

It took Jen's murmured query and the answering curt nod before Wes' conscious caught up with what his subconscious had long since realised. This was the man whose morpher he wore. This was the man to whom Jen had given her heart. This was the man against whom he'd been compared countless times.

  
"Alex!" Jen flung herself at her fiancé in a bear hug that actually drove Alex back a step.

__

You always knew she was out of your league, Collins, Wes tried to remind himself at the sight, but that didn't seem to stop his heart from shattering.

"You're alive?" Jen was sobbing. "I thought you were gone forever."

"I barely survived Ransik's attack," Alex answered, gently untangling Jen's arms from around his neck.

"Are you OK? I want to know everything I..."

But Alex cut her off. "There isn't much time," he murmured, shaking his head.

Wes felt a surge of anger at the look of hurt that blossomed on Jen's face at the obvious subject change, but he swallowed that back in the same way he'd swallowed every other feeling he'd had about Jen. _The last thing she needs is for me to start acting like a moron._

"I have a lot of things to discuss with you," Alex announced to the whole group. "Take me to your base of operations."

__

Politeness costs nothing, you know, Wes found himself thinking. _Stupid! He's a ranking officer -- he doesn't need to be polite..._ Seeing everyone else was somewhat dumbstruck by the turn of events, Wes forced his errant thoughts back into line and stepped forward.

"It's this way..." but the words died on his lips as he felt the full force of Alex's disapproving glare. Wes forced himself to meet it without flinching.

"You must be Wes," Alex finally said.

For an instant, Wes thought he saw something else lurking in Alex's expression. Then it was gone and only cold distain remained. "Yes, sir."

The reply seemed to startle Alex, as though he hadn't been expecting it -- or perhaps had been expecting something else. "Hm."

__

And I thought Eric was arrogant. Wes gave an internal shrug.

"The clock tower's this way," Lucas finally said, presumably having recovered from his shock.

Alex nodded once in a clear 'what are we waiting for' fashion.

Lucas started to lead them back towards the clock tower. Wes hung back, intending to ask Jen if she was OK but the hurt expression had blanked into a bland mask, which Wes judged to mean she didn't want to talk about anything. He gave another internal shrug and followed Lucas, Trip, Katie and Alex.

~*~

Wes could almost hear Alex's teeth grinding as they reached the attic of the clock tower. The other man's whole being radiated annoyance as though everything about this century displeased him.

"This," he finally said in open disgust, "is your base of operations?"

"We can monitor the whole city from up here," Jen replied quietly.

Wes winced at her tone. It was virtually a match for the tone of voice she'd used with him right back when they first met and now that he knew her better, he knew it meant she was deeply, deeply upset about something. Then, as now, that something was Alex.

"Hm."

Alex started towards the clock face. Wes was almost waiting to see him run his finger over the table and inspect for dust, such was the expression on Alex's face, when suddenly Circuit appeared. He flew in through one of the open windows and causing Alex to rapidly duck or risk being beheaded by the mechanical owl.

__

Might be an improvement, Wes found himself thinking before he could stop it.

"Sorry," Circuit apologised as he landed on his perch.

Alex's glare turned up another notch or two. "**Very **secure area!" he muttered sarcastically. "Fall in line!"

The other rangers formed up in a line, standing to attention, at the command. Not being a member of Time Force, Wes joined the line up but a pace or two back, which had been where Jen had once told him civilian Time Force employees stood when on parade.

Again, there was a momentary look of surprise on Alex's face at that. Wes met his gaze once more. _You were expecting me to be a know-nothing civilian, weren't you?_

Then the surprise was gone. "Your actions here," Alex began coldly, "have caused history to be altered." He started pacing. "And these shifts are starting to affect the future."

"How?" Trip asked.

Alex looked down his nose at Trip, and stated pompously, "I cannot tell you." He then shot a glare in Wes' direction. 

__

What was **that** for? Wes wondered.

Alex continued, "Now listen up." He stopped pacing. "Frax has broken away from Ransik and is building a super robot powerful enough to destroy the whole city." At that pronouncement, Wes couldn't help but flinch. Silverhills was his home and he had no desire to see it obliterated, which was part of the reason he'd wound up a ranger in the first place. "It must be destroyed, which is why I'm here."

Alex paused and again Wes felt his gaze on him. This time, though, Wes had a nasty suspicion he knew what was coming next.

"I'm going to take over as red ranger."

And even though he'd suspected it, the arrogant statement still came as a shock. "What?!"

His own exclamation was echoed by the other rangers apart from Jen, and in Trip's case was followed up with, "But Wes is our red ranger -- he's great."

__

I don't think that'll cut any ice with Mr Freeze over there, Trip, Wes thought, but as he looked, there was a strange expression on Alex's face -- almost as though... But it was gone before Wes could identify it.

"Perhaps," was how Alex eventually replied. "But his destiny is to take over his father's company, Biolab."

At that, Wes rolled his eyes. "Well maybe it **was**, but it's not any more. We each make our own destiny."

"**Wrong**!" Alex thundered. "Everything you've done, I've allowed to happen. I've tried to keep history from altering, but Frax's robot is too powerful. I had to come in person. You'll fulfil your destiny and take over at Biolab." Alex paused as if choosing his next words carefully. "Because tomorrow, your father will die."

Wes stared at Alex in fast mounting shock, horror and disbelief. This had to be some kind of sick joke.

And into the stunned silence, a solitary morpher bleeped.

It took several seconds for Wes to realise that it was his morpher and since Eric was the only ranger not present... Wes didn't like where that thought was going. Reluctantly, he acknowledged the comm. call.

"Wes?" At the sound of Eric's voice, a lead ball started to form in the pit of Wes' stomach. "It's Eric -- do you read?"

Wes swallowed. "Go ahead, Eric."

"It's your father," Eric stated. "He's been injured. I think you should come to the hospital right away it looks...pretty bad."

The connection cut, leaving Wes feeling utterly numb and the clock tower utterly silent.

Into that silence came Alex's voice. "I'm sorry about your father, Wes," he stated, "but you can't change your destiny."

Wes looked up to find Alex standing right in front of him, holding out a hand, presumably waiting for him to return the morpher. Wes was tempted to tell Alex to go to hell, but that was an impulse swiftly squashed. He wasn't going to let Jen down like that. Instead, he meekly undid the strap and handed the device to Alex without a murmur, before turning to leave.

"Wes, wait," Jen began.

"Keep focused, people," Alex snapped. "I'm the leader now."

Wes rounded the corner on the stairs and ceased to be able to hear Alex's strident tones but he continued to hear an echo of Alex's prophesy. _Your father will die tomorrow._

~*~

Wes had no real idea of how he reached the hospital. He had a feeling that it had involved doing twice the speed limit at times, but some how that didn't seem to matter. He'd been telling himself ever since he'd moved out of his father's home that he didn't care about his father. That their relationship didn't matter. 

Five words from Alex had amply demonstrated that he'd been deluding himself.

They might not see eye to eye on some things, but at the end of the day, Wes realised as he parked his bike, they were family, as clichéd as that sounded.

__

Blood really is thicker than water.

Wes walked into the hospital.

  
"Can I help you?" asked the receptionist whose nametag proclaimed her to be Jane.

"Uh..." Wes cast a glance around the reception area, half hoping Eric would be around, but there was no sign of him. "You have my...ah...my dad in here..."

"What name?" Jane asked.

"Collins...Alexander Collins."

Jane turned to her computer terminal and input the name, but as the results came back, she gasped. "He's in room 306 in the ICU."

Wes closed his eyes and swallowed. He'd known, from the way Eric was speaking and from what Alex had prophesised, that it was unlikely his father would be on a normal ward but... He opened his eyes again and realised that Jane was giving him a look of pure sympathy. "Where is that?"

"It's on the third floor -- you'll need to ask at the reception there."

"OK." He turned to leave. Belatedly, he turned back and added, "Thank you."

Jane gave another sympathetic smile and Wes headed away into the hospital.

He hated hospitals. The thought dawned on him as he rode in the elevator up to the third floor. There was just something about them that gave him the creeps. The elevator halted at the third floor and the doors slid open.

Stepping out, Wes found himself in an almost silent, white painted hallway. On the wall in front of him was a sign indicating reception was to his left. He followed it, and sure enough, just along the hallway was a miniature version of the main reception area.

"Excuse me," Wes began. The nurse working at the desk looked up. "Can you tell me where room 306 is?"

"Just down there, to the left," she replied, pointing.

"Thanks."

Wes followed her directions and found himself standing outside room 306 looking through the window. His father looked as though he was just sleeping, although the visible cuts and the assorted wires and machines made a lie of that idea. 

For the first time, Wes allowed himself to wonder just what had happened. Eric hadn't offered any kind of explanation -- nor did he seem to be around now to ask -- and Alex had just baldly stated what would happen. 

"He'll make it Wes," stated a voice confidently.

Wes jumped. He had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn't notice the speaker walk up. Looking round, he saw one of his father's bootlickers. Jennings? Fredricks? Taylor -- that was it. Wes glared at him and wished he'd go away.

  
"I don't know anyone tougher than your dad," Taylor continued, apparently oblivious to the poisonous glare he was receiving.

__

Your father will die tomorrow. Again Alex's prophesy echoed through his mind.

"...he'd want it to be you." Wes realised that Taylor had been talking to him.

"What?"

"Someone needs to make decisions at Biolab while your father recovers," Taylor explained.

__

You can't change your destiny.

__

Surely dad has a deputy -- someone he's been grooming for this... The bottom dropped out of Wes' stomach as the realisation hit him. _Me._ He turned back to the hospital room. His father hadn't moved -- not that Wes had really expected him to have done. _I don't have a choice, do I? Alex is right about that. I guess you really can't escape your destiny._

Wes sighed. "You want me to do it?"

"It's what your father would have wanted," Taylor replied obsequiously.

"OK."

"Good." Taylor was smiling. Wes could hear it in his voice. "You have a board meeting in fifteen minutes."

Wes fought the urge to take a swing at the soulless lackey. While it might be satisfying in the short term, it wouldn't help his position. _Besides,_ he reminded himself, _it's not as if I can stay here all day. At least that will give me something else to think about._

~*~

Within fifteen minutes, Wes found himself waiting outside a conference room in the Silver Guardians' head quarters. He'd been a little surprised by the venue for this board meeting, but Taylor had managed to wriggle out of a straight answer.

"After you," Taylor gestured.

Wes gave an inward sigh and entered the room. The sight that met him was almost enough to persuade him to turn around and walk right back out again. The room was filled with every single executive in the Biolab group, including Eric. Most of the people in the room stared at him as though he was some kind of strange new creature, but Eric... Wes would have smiled, if the expression hadn't been out of place. Eric's reaction was a standard glare. At least that was something that hadn't changed.

While Wes had been taking note of all of this, Taylor had been conducting some kind of explanation. Wes had missed most of it, but he could work out what had been said.

"Let's get down to business," Taylor concluded, handing Wes the meeting's agenda.

Reluctantly, Wes took his seat and the meeting started.

Five minutes was all it took for Wes to confirm that board meetings were still as unentertaining as he recalled them being. As one of the executives started talking about the figures from a Canadian subsidiary, Wes risked a glance at Eric, wondering if he was as bored, only to find that the Silver Guardian commander was in conversation with another Silver Guardian. Moments later, and Eric withdrew from the meeting altogether.

__

Must be something up. For a fraction of a second, Wes wondered why Jen hadn't called him via his morpher, only to remember that it was no longer his morpher. Alex had it back. They didn't need him any more.

Almost to underline that point, he was handed a dry and uninteresting report on the productivity of the plant in Medicine Hat.

After that, things started to blur.

Report after report was given.

Data was handed to him to be reviewed.

Questions were put to him and he gave answers.

It was like something from the depths of his nightmares except that he was wide awake and had no chance of escaping.

Finally it was over. Taylor gently shepherded him out of the Silver Guardian's complex and into a waiting limo.

"To take you back to the hospital," Taylor explained.

"Here you are, Mr Collins," stated the driver, opening one of the passenger doors.

Wes shivered at hearing the appellation normally applied to his father. It was just...wrong. The whole situation was wrong, and yet there didn't seem to be any way out of it.

As the limo headed back to the hospital, Wes wondered what had happened with the rangers. He supposed, given his new position, he could order Eric to tell him, but he doubted that would go over at all well. The report would probably hit his desk in a couple of days.

The casual thought made Wes' mind clench as he realised the implication behind it. A couple of days. His desk.

__

Your father will die tomorrow.

Five words that buzzed through his brain like angry hornets. Was the future really that set in stone that Alex could be that certain?

And what if he was right?

As he reached that point in his thoughts, Wes realised that not only had the limo ride come to an end, but also that he'd managed to walk on autopilot, through the hospital until he'd reached his father's bedside.

As he sat down on one of the hard, plastic chairs beside his father's bed the thought dully occurred to him that he probably ought to have something to eat, but he had no appetite. Instead, he turned his attention to his father, and started to pray that Alex was wrong.

~*~

Wes jerked awake with a start.

For a second he wondered where he was. Then everything came crashing back in on him. Alex. His father. Biolab. As he moved to stand up and stretch, he realised that he'd spent the whole night asleep on the plastic, hospital chair. The muscles in his back and neck all complained as he finally moved. Without even giving it any thought, he automatically performed a couple of loosening exercises that Lucas had shown him back when he'd first moved into the clock tower.

A brief smile crossed Wes' face in remembrance. The morning after his first night had been agony. He had almost expected some form of snide comment from Lucas when the blue ranger had come over to where he'd been sitting somewhat gingerly, but all Lucas had said was, "Stiff?" Wes had nodded. Lucas had given a faint smile and had proceeded to teach Wes several exercises that -- to Wes' general surprise -- instantly relieved abused back muscles.

As he finished doing them, though, Wes' eyes fell on the brightly sunlit blind on the window, and the happy memory faded.

__

Your father will die tomorrow.

Alex's words returned full force as Wes realised **this** was the day.

His knees turned to water at the realisation and he dropped back into the seat he'd just vacated. As he did so, his gaze fell on his father's still form.

__

Please, dad -- prove Alex wrong.

~*~

The morning dragged by. Wes managed to distract himself somewhat by looking over some of the reports he'd been handed the day before but it did little to improve his general mood.

Midway through the morning, there was a knock on the door. Wes looked round, half expecting to see Taylor or one of his cronies and was consequently surprised to realise it was Dr Zaskin, one of his father's top scientists.

"Hello Wesley," Zaskin said softly.

"Hi Dr Zaskin," Wes answered.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Wes nodded. "Sure." He slowly got to his feet, crossed to the doorway and followed Zaskin out into the hallway.

"He's not doing so good, is he?" Zaskin asked as Wes pulled the door shut behind him.

Wes sighed and shook his head. "No."

There was a moment of silence, and then Zaskin said, "You know, I was surprised when they announced yesterday that you'd stepped in for your dad."

Wes wondered where this was going. "Well...it's what he would have wanted."

Zaskin shook his head. "I don't think so." Wes blinked. "Hasn't anyone told you what happened yesterday?" Dumbly, Wes shook his head. Zaskin sighed in exasperation. "More keen on getting you in as a figurehead were they? Huh."

Wes got the feeling Zaskin, normally a placid man, would gladly string up certain of his father's administration team. "What happened, Dr Zaskin?"

"Ransik attacked Biolab's headquarters yesterday. He was after the anti-Venomark serum, and he didn't care how he got it."

Wes felt his flesh grow cold at that revelation. _Jen was right -- Serverax and the Cyclobots were a distraction._

"Your father and I were in the main production laboratory when Ransik arrived," Zaskin continued. "Before either of us could do anything, Ransik threw me out of the way and then pointed his sword at your father and demanded the serum. Your father didn't move. He refused to be intimidated by Ransik. _'You're trying to destroy my son,'_ he said, _'and I won't do a thing to help you.'_ That was how he got hurt," Zaskin finished. "Protecting you."

Wes stared. "Protecting me?" he echoed.

Zaskin nodded. "He's proud of you, Wesley. What you're doing...what you've **been** doing might not have been what he had in mind for you, but he's proud of you."

"Proud of me?" Wes echoed, stunned. 

"He loves you very much," Zaskin commented. "Don't ever doubt it."

With that, Zaskin limped off down the hallway, heading for the elevators. Wes turned back to re-enter his father's room -- then thought better of it.

__

I need some fresh air and some time to think.

Wes followed Zaskin towards the elevators, pausing to leave his pager number with the reception desk in case something happened, and headed out into the morning sunshine for a walk.

As he walked, he thought back to the last few conversations he'd had with his father.

__

"I couldn't be more disappointed." That had been his father's assessment when he'd spotted Wes on one of the odd jobs -- but by the following day, after he'd learned of Wes being a Time Force ranger he'd invited Wes to lead the Silver Guardians and there had been a note of...something in his father's voice during that conversation. Could it have been pride?

Wes wished he had someone he could talk to about it, but the one person who might be able to help him was...

Looking up, Wes realised he'd unconsciously walked to the clock tower. What the hell -- all Alex could do was yell at him. Jen, Lucas, Trip and Katie were still his friends. So what if it was his destiny to run Biolab -- since when did that mean he couldn't talk to his friends?

Decision made, Wes pushed open the odd jobs shop door and entered.

"Hello?" he called.

Silence met his call.

__

They must be out on an assignment, Wes decided. He started to turn round to leave when he heard a noise from the attic.

Puzzled, Wes started up the stairs. "Hello?"

"Wes...is that you?" Circuit's voice was weak.

Wes quickened his pace and entered the attic in time to see Circuit attempt to land on his perch and miss. Without thinking about it, Wes dived forward to prevent the mechanical owl from hitting the floor. As he caught the owl, Wes noted scorch marks on the owl's white chest.

"Circuit? What happened?"

"He's just...too powerful," Circuit murmured weakly.

Wes frowned in mounting alarm. "Who is?"

"Frax...and Dragontron."

"What about the others?"

"The rangers are..." And then Circuit's systems shut down altogether to start repairing the damage, leaving Wes deeply worried.

The others were in trouble, that much was clear. Wes' first instinct was to rush off, find them and help. But as he stood up to place Circuit on the table it occurred to him to wonder just what good he'd be able to do. He was unpowered and unarmed.

But they were his friends.

What good would it do if he got himself killed?

They were his friends.

What would happen to Biolab?

They were **his** friends.

Wes closed his eyes and swallowed. His father was proud of him for what he had been doing, and that wasn't standing here dithering. That had been following his instincts and helping his friends.

"Biolab might be my destiny," Wes murmured softly, "but I am choosing to help my friends because they are my friends and it's the right thing to do."

Wes opened his eyes again. He put Circuit down on the table and then headed for the door. Silverhills might be a big city, but he knew from past experience that something as big and as messy as an attack on the city would be easy to find.

__

Just hope I can get there in time to help.

~*~

Sure enough, the battleground was easy to find, particularly given the two Time Force megazords towering over the site. Both, Wes noted, looked trashed -- which was not a good sign, given that Dragontron was still undefeated. But of more concern to him was the scene at the feet of the three giant robots.

Frax and several Cyclobots had the unmorphed rangers cornered, and Frax was aiming a cyclosabre at them, preparing to end the battle once and for all.

"Time's up, rangers," Frax cackled.

With a sudden clarity, Wes recognised the situation. **This** was what he'd been dreaming about for the last few days and that realisation fuelled his determination not to let Frax win.

"Not if I can help it."

Wes sprinted forward and dived at the golden robot, knocking his shot off target.

"What the... Where did **you** spring from?" Frax hissed in annoyance.

"I'm your worst nightmare," Wes quipped. "Didn't you know that?"

"Wes -- the energy siphon!" 

Risking a quick glance up, Wes identified the energy siphon and judged the distance between him and it. The chances of him making it across that distance without Frax or a Cyclobot stopping him were so remote as to not be worth mentioning, which meant... He wrenched the cyclosabre from Frax's grasp, aimed and fired.

"Nooo!" Frax howled as the siphon exploded. "I **will** get you for that."

In a dizzying blur of movement, Wes found himself being pinned to the concrete by Frax with the cyclosabre aimed at his head.

"Oh no you don't."

There was a blast of red energy that sent Frax backwards, yelping. It took Wes several seconds to realise that Alex had just saved his life. As if that wasn't strange enough, as Wes got to his feet, he realised the other man was standing next to him and was...offering the red morpher?

"What are you waiting for, Collins? A written invitation?" Alex growled.

Dazedly, Wes accepted the morpher. Beyond Alex, he could see Jen and Lucas smiling -- in relief? Yes -- it was definitely relief. _What the hell?_

"It doesn't matter who the red ranger is," Frax snorted, finally recovering from Alex's blast. "Dragontron will still destroy you." And with that threat, he teleported away.

Wes looked from Alex to the other rangers and back. Alex gave a nod, almost as much to say 'it's up to you now', before stepping back out of the way.

"Ready, guys?" Wes asked.

"Ready."

As they morphed, Wes wasn't sure, but he thought he caught a hint of a smile on Alex's face.

"Let's finish this."

~*~

In the finish, it had taken both Time Force megazords and the intervention of Eric and the Q-Rex, but Dragontron was defeated.

Unfortunately, any relief he might have felt died the instant he demorphed as he realised that his pager was bleeping. Pulling it out of his pocket just confirmed his gut instinct.

"Crap."

Without waiting for anyone else to notice, he turned and started back towards the hospital at a dead run.

"Wes!"

The shout brought Wes to a skidding halt as a black SUV pulled up beside him. Glancing round, he realised that it was Eric behind the wheel.

"Get in!" Eric ordered, then less harshly, he added, "I'll give you a ride."

It took Wes a couple of seconds to process the words and in those few seconds Eric underlined his comments by leaning across and opening the passenger door. As Wes nodded and climbed in, it crossed his mind to wonder how Eric knew where he was going.

"The hospital, right?" Eric clarified, as he pulled away from the curb. Wes nodded. "It won't take long."

There was almost a note of kindness in Eric's tone of voice -- although Wes only realised it afterwards, when he had a chance to think about events. As it was, the journey passed by in a complete blur.

Before the SUV had even completely stopped, Wes was out of the car and into the hospital building. He debated going for the elevator and settled for taking the stairs three at a time. He reached the third floor and barrelled along the hallway to room 306.

But the sight that met him when he reached room 306 was enough to make him freeze completely.

The bed was empty -- and not just empty, remade.

"No."

Wes refused to believe what his eyes were telling him.

Hesitantly, he stepped forwards, into the room.

"No."

He reached out and touched the bed. That touch confirmed what he was seeing.

"No..."

His knees gave out from under him and he would have fallen, but for a nearby chair. He sat down, hard. He was too late.

That's when the tears started.

"Wes?"

He was hearing things. Or maybe it was Eric.

"Wesley."

Half of him wanted to look; the rest of him was still convinced he was hearing things. Curiosity won out, and Wes slowly turned to look.

There was his father, sitting in a wheel chair and smiling at him.

Wes closed his eyes and opened them again. His father was still there. It wasn't a hallucination.

"You're alive!"

His father chuckled faintly. "Thanks to you."

That startled Wes. "Me?"

His father nodded. "I remember lying there, trying to catch my breath -- and I couldn't. I could feel myself going away... And then I saw you, and I knew I'd be all right."

"You saw me?" Wes echoed. His father nodded. _Alex -- it must have been._

"Wesley?"

Wes smiled. "Nothing, dad."

His father smiled. "I hear you attended the board meeting yesterday afternoon."

"I did," Wes agreed, nodding. "But..."

"I can't tell you how much that meant to me when Dr Zaskin told me, but," and his father held up a hand to stall any comment Wes might have been about to make, "I don't want you to be a businessman for my sake." Wes stared. "Your place...is with the rangers. It isn't the career I would have picked for you, but I now understand. And I am proud of you."

Wes found himself smiling broadly at that. It was confirmation of what Zaskin had told him that morning, and Wes didn't think he'd felt quite this happy in a long while.

"Ahem." Wes looked passed his father and saw Eric standing in the doorway. "Sorry to interrupt," Eric continued, seeing he had their attention, "but I've got a message for Wes." Wes frowned. "From Jen," Eric added.

"Jen?" Wes echoed.

Eric tapped a finger against the Quantum Morpher. "She said they were at the beach, if you could join them."

__

Why on earth would they be at the beach? Wes wondered. _Unless that's where Alex's Time Ship landed..._

"If you have something you need to do, son, I don't mind," his father commented. "I promise I'll still be here when you get back!"

"Thanks dad." Wes stood up. "I will be back."

~*~

The journey out to the coast didn't take too long. Sure enough, as Wes parked his bike and looked down, there was the Time Ship -- at least, it was something that matched the description Trip had once given him of the Time Ship -- and in front of it were Alex and the other rangers.

__

I need answers, Wes decided, jogging down onto the beach, just as Alex turned towards the Time Ship.

"Alex!"

Alex hesitated.

"Alex, wait." Wes finally reached him, and came to stand in front of the other man. "It was you, wasn't it?" Alex lifted his eyebrows in silent query. "You saved my dad."

Alex smiled faintly and nodded.

"And if I ask you why, you're not going to tell me, are you?" Wes added softly.

Alex's smile faded. "I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't," Alex replied firmly. "Yet."

"So there is an explanation out there, somewhere?"

Alex chuckled, sounding so unlike the man Wes had met the day before that it dawned on Wes that one or other incarnation was a charade -- and Wes knew which one he was putting his money against. "Somewhere," he agreed. "Or some-when, maybe."

Wes slowly shook his head. "Something tells me I'm not going to like it when I do hear it."

"That," Alex replied, "is not for me to say." He held out a hand. "Good luck."

Wes shook the proffered hand and smiled. "Thanks."

Alex gave a nod. Wes stepped out of his path and allowed the other man to reach the Time Ship. He turned and watched as the Time Ship took off and his chance for answers vanished into a time hole.

"You OK?" Jen asked, as the time hole winked out of existence.

"Yeah. I think so." Wes smiled. "It's been on hell of a week."

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	16. Recovery

Disclaimer: Not mine, never have been, never will be.

Comments: Just a little bridging chapter to round out the Destiny arc.

With thanks to Ekat for the beta'ing. Also to Selma, Ecolea and Gamine for listening to me whine at various points in time.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing, glad you guys are enjoying it, we're into the home stretch now.

~*~

Identity -- Recovery

Five days after Dragontron, and Wes was finally back at the clock tower. In spite of his father's assertion that he should be with the rangers, Wes had remained helping out with an assortment of administrative tasks at Biolab until his father was declared fit to return to work.

Jen had understood when he'd mentioned his plans.

"Ransik will probably lie low for a few days anyway," she had said, "and it's not as if we can't get in touch with you if we need you."

But now his father was back at work, and he was back where he should be...well, almost. The rest of the rangers were out on assorted odd jobs and he was minding the counter.

It was tedious -- but nowhere near as boring as one or two of the meetings he'd attended in the preceding five days.

Startling him out of his thoughts, the shop door opened. Wes looked up to see Eric entering. There was a brief sense of déjà vu -- the last time Eric had shown up at the clock tower had been the morning Venomark had been unleashed.

But unlike that day, Eric was almost smiling. That in itself was enough to alarm Wes.

"Hey Eric."

"Wes -- just the guy I wanted to see."

Wes' alarm mounted. "What can I do for you?"

Eric smirked, probably guessing some of Wes' worry. "Just wanted to give you this." He handed over a carrier bag.

Wes accepted it and peered at the contents: several disks, a sheaf of notes and a DAT back-up tape, along with a videocassette. "What's this?"

"The details on the serum. Thanks to Ransik trashing the labs, all kinds of data's gone missing."

Wes stared. "What about my father?"

Eric gave a half smile. "He figured it was Ransik who took it. I'm not going to tell him if you don't."

With that, the Silver Guardian commander turned and walked out of the odd jobs shop.

Wes slowly shook his head. _Every time I think I understand that guy, he goes and does something like this. _Wes shrugged.

Maybe he would never understand Eric, but at least the Quantum Ranger was becoming a team player. Wes smiled. Even if it was on Eric's terms, it was still better than nothing.

__

I'll give this stuff to Jen later -- she'll probably know the best way of disposing of it.

But that thought brought up the main thing that had been bothering him since Alex's departure. Where did he stand with Jen? He had assumed, when Alex had shown up, that his chances of a relationship with Jen had gone right back to nil. But from the bits and pieces he'd picked up from Lucas, Katie and Trip, Alex had spent the entire time he was around, picking on Jen and acting like a total jerk. That had explained the relief on their faces when Alex had handed him the red morpher but...

Wes shook his head.

No matter what way he thought about it, the end answer was always the same. He was just going to have to screw the courage up to talk to Jen.

"Which could possibly be the hardest thing I've ever done," Wes murmured softly.

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	17. Covert Action

Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to BVE. I make no money out of this (unless you count what I've earned while writing this at work...). No comically large nutcracker dolls were harmed in the making of this fic.

Guess what? It's an episode interpretation of _Undercover Rangers_ with a few of the plot nits (that I have to own up to actually creating) smoothed out.

This follows on directly from _Recovery_.

Many thanks to Ekat for beta'ing, helping with sticky bits of description and allowing me to bounce sections off her to see if they were funny. Huge thanks must go to Leathie for the insulting help -- some mutants are easy to insult others require an expert. Thanks also to Selma for chewing a couple of plot points with me and to Ecolea for likewise plot chewing and giving me feedback as to whether there were any laughs to be had. Much appreciated!

Please offer feedback -- it tells me that there are people out there enjoying it.

~*~

Identity -- Covert Action

At five o'clock, Wes began closing up the odd jobs shop for the night, knowing that the others would be back shortly. Almost as if to demonstrate that fact, the shop door opened to admit Lucas.

"You're back," Lucas stated, somewhat surprised.

Wes frowned, mildly puzzled. "Uh, yeah -- Jen didn't tell you?"

Lucas smirked. "Nope. But it explains a few things, though."

"Oh?" Lucas merely smiled and shook his head. Wes shrugged. "Fine, whatever. Where is everyone else anyway?"

"Katie and Trip went to pick up some groceries," Lucas answered, heading for the stairs, "and Jen is...out."

"Out?" Wes echoed.

"Out," Lucas confirmed. "Said she needed a walk."

Wes frowned again. "A walk?"

Lucas held up his hands in an 'I'm harmless gesture. "Don't shoot the messenger -- I'm only telling you what she told me." And with that, he vanished up the stairs.

Wes sighed and shook his head. _Something weird's going on here,_ he decided as he finished tidying the shop.

He headed up the stairs, intending to get answers from Lucas, but when Wes arrived in the attic, he discovered that his quarry had retreated into his poetry book.

Wes sighed and shook his head.

"Coward," he muttered. Lucas snickered, but refused to put the book down, and Wes wasn't feeling desperate to interrupt him. _Besides, I should probably be grateful for the extra time to figure out what to say to Jen._

When she got here, Wes knew that he was going to ask to talk to her -- but that was where his plans halted. He knew what he **needed** to ask, but he had no idea **how** to ask it. If he got this wrong, she was liable to stick him through the nearest brick wall, or -- worse -- laugh.

"Hey."

Wes found himself jumping about a foot into the air. He'd been so absorbed by his thoughts that he hadn't heard the speaker walk into the attic. Looking round, he realised that the speaker was the subject of his thoughts.

"Jen!"

She smiled, a little nervously. "What're you doing?"

"Oh...uh...nothing." _You're a **wonderful** conversationalist, Collins -- you know that?_ he thought sarcastically.

"I...err..." Jen began, then trailed off. She started to pace.

"Um...Jen... I..." Wes found his words drying up as Jen turned to face him.

"Wes I... No. Um..." She resumed her pacing.

Wes sighed. _You're making a total idiot of yourself -- you do realise that?_ He took a firm grasp of his courage. "Jen I have something to tell you."

"Wes -- I have something I need to tell you."

The two comments came at exactly the same time.

Wes found himself giving a nervous laugh. "You go first."

Jen blinked. "Oh...no. No...ah...you go first."

"OK...ah..." From the tail of his eye, Wes could see Lucas making a slight winding motion with his hand as much to say 'get on with it'. "I...ah...you go first." Lucas sagged, shaking his head. _You try doing this, Kendall! It's not easy!_

"Well...I...ah...you go first."

"Would **one** of you go first," Lucas finally commented. "You're both driving me nuts!" Before Wes could say anything, the blue ranger was on his feet and standing between him and Jen. "Wes?"

"I...ah...that is..."

"Oh never mind!" Lucas groaned, clearly exasperated. "Jen."

"I..."

"You guys!"

All three of them started at the shout. Looking round, Wes saw Katie and Trip in the doorway. The shout had come from Trip, but Katie followed it up by saying,

"You'll never believe what we saw in the park just now."

"What happened?" Jen asked, clearly glad of the subject change.

Wes silently cursed. _Well **that** went well. **NOT**!_ he berated himself.

"We just saw the **weirdest** thing," Katie explained.

"Yeah, some guy from some gym is telling people he can make them super strong," Trip put in.

"We saw this little guy step outa the audience, take a sip of some weird drink and then lift five hundred pounds," Katie concluded.

Wes stared. "That's impossible."

"That's mutant related," Jen corrected. "Maybe two of us should go in undercover and check it out."

"Good idea," agreed Lucas.

"I'll go," Trip volunteered.

Wes opened his mouth to say that was probably a good idea when Lucas got in first. "How about Wes and Jen go?"

"Me?!" Wes exclaimed.

"I think you'd be perfect," said Lucas.

__

What the hell...? "I..."

"Yeeeeah," Katie agreed. "You'd be ideal."

"But I..."

"It's a great idea," Trip added after a rather blatant nudge from Lucas. "You're right -- I'd be a bad choice."

Wes' eyes narrowed. He looked from Lucas to Trip to Katie. There was clearly Something Up -- but as Jen didn't seem to be objecting Wes decided to try and ignore the feeling that the others were endeavouring to set him up for something.

"So what's the plan?" he asked in lieu of anything better to say.

"Well, we need to figure out a disguise," Jen replied. "It's not as if we can walk into this place -- wherever it is -- dressed like this. If it is mutant related then..." she trailed off as Wes started to nod.

"It's the Super Strong Gym," Katie supplied. "We got given a leaflet." She handed the leaflet to Jen who started to study it.

After a moment, Jen looked up and turned a dissecting glare onto Wes, frowning. "This place is claiming it can build up your muscles when everything else has failed. No-one's gonna believe you want to join a gym for that reason."

Before Wes could say anything, Lucas jumped in, "They will with the right disguise."

Jen's eyebrows rose almost of their own accord. Wes judged that to mean she'd grown suspicious of Lucas' motives too -- but she refrained from commenting directly. Instead, all the said was, "Then I guess you get to be the one who thinks up that disguise."

"Already thought of it," Lucas replied smiling.

"You know," Wes muttered, "I don't think I like the sound of that."

~*~

The following morning, Wes found himself being dragged out of bed early by Lucas.

"Wassamatter?" he slurred.

"Don't you want to see your disguise?" Lucas replied.

"Not really," Wes admitted. "What is with you guys on this?"

But Lucas just smirked. "C'mon."

Reluctantly, Wes followed Lucas down to the odd-jobs shop. From behind the counter, Lucas produced a plastic carrier bag of clothing.

"Here -- go get changed," Lucas ordered.

Seeing no alternative, Wes accepted the bag and headed into the clock tower's bathroom. Closing the door behind him, he tipped the bag up and emptied the contents onto the floor and found a pair of faded, baggy, red jeans, a blue-and-green, checked lumberjack shirt and a navy-blue hooded sweatshirt. Lucas had to be kidding.

Wes inwardly cringed at the hideous mis-match of colours and patterns.

__

Sure hope I don't meet anyone who knows me in this lot.

Reluctantly, he started to pull on the jeans. Next came the shirt, which was as big and baggy as the jeans were. Finally came the sweatshirt -- which was also impossibly baggy.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Wes had to admit that the ensemble did contrive to make him look smaller -- even if it **was** utterly lacking in taste.

"Done?" Lucas asked.

"I guess," Wes answered.

"Well let's see," Trip called.

Wes' first impulse was to reply he wasn't coming out if he had an audience. He swallowed that. If he was going to do this undercover thing, he was going to have to come out. _OK. I can do this. It's not as if this is really **me**._ Nervously pushing the sleeves of the sweatshirt up to his elbows, Wes exited the bathroom.

"Not bad," said Lucas, smirking. "You make a convincing geek."

"I feel ridiculous," Wes retorted, plucking at the sweatshirt.

"It's very...ah...unique," said Trip, clearly biting the inside of his cheek in an effort not to laugh.

__

I must look bad if Trip finds it amusing.

"Here," offered Lucas handing Wes a ratty pair of sneakers. "Just to complete the look."

"I can't believe I let you people talk me into this," Wes muttered, forcing the sneakers onto his feet.

"Is he done?" Katie called.

"Yep," Lucas replied. "How 'bout Jen?"

"Uh-huh."

Before Wes could ask for clarification, he found himself being prodded back into the shop proper in time to see Katie lead...

Wes' eyes widened in complete and utter shock as he looked Jen up and down. She was almost completely unrecognisable. She was wearing a long, dirty blonde, braided wig, with pink flowers in her hair, a pink checked shirt, blue denim overalls, thick glasses, and knee-high socks. The effect was...

"Wes Collins if you so much as snigger I will kick your ass from here 'til next Christmas," Jen hissed.

"And you think I have room to laugh?" Wes retorted, gesturing at what he was wearing.

"Good point."

"One last thing," said Lucas, his voice filled with barely suppressed laughter, "don't forget to take off your morphers."

"Yes daddy," cooed Jen. "And be aware, Lucas Kendall I **will **be making a note of this in your file."

"Sue me," Lucas retorted.

"C'mon -- lets get outa here before they get any more ideas," Wes suggested, stuffing his chrono-morpher into one of the pockets of his sweatshirt.

"Good idea," Jen agreed, putting her morpher into the baby-doll knapsack purse that Katie had produced for her.

~*~

"You know," Wes muttered as they headed towards the Super Strong Gym, "they took way too much fun in setting us up for this."

"Gee, you think?" Jen drawled.

"Want to hazard a guess why?"

"No -- just plot some nasty ways of getting even."

"Works for me."

"That's the place," she said, changing the subject, and pointing towards the clearly named Super Strong Gym. "Any ideas what it used to be?"

Wes studied the building. "Believe it or not," he replied, "it's been a gym of some sort for as long as I can remember -- think it used to be Hideo Koto's dojo, but it's been derelict for the last year."

"So it would be the perfect place for Ransik or someone to set up in?"

"Yeah."

"This is smelling worse by the minute. C'mon."

Jen led him across the grassy space in front of the gym and into the building. Wes had half hoped that there'd be some blatant sign of mutant activity in the lobby so that this mission could be over and done with, but no such luck. The handful of people in the lobby area all looked perfectly normal and harmless -- with the very probable exception of the woman behind the desk.

__

Trouble on two legs.

The woman was tall, buxom and clad in Lycra so skin-tight it looked painted on. And worse, Wes realised, her eyes had just lit up as they fell on him.

"C'mon -- and stop drooling," Jen hissed softly.

Wes blinked. He wasn't aware he had been! He followed Jen up to the counter.

"Hi," Jen began, giving an amazingly passable ditsy giggle. "We'd like to join."

"Sure," the clerk drawled in a molasses thick Southern accent. "If you'd like to pop your name and your boyfriend's name..."

"Oh -- he's not my...boyfriend," Jen answered hastily.

"No...I'm not..." Wes felt his voice dry up as the clerk turned a smouldering gaze on him.

"Oh, I see," she replied, smiling. She held a clipboard out to Wes, brushing her hand over his bare forearms. "Now you just put your name in here," she began.

Before Wes could do anything, Jen snatched the clipboard from him and started furiously scribbling out details. _What the hell's bitten her?_

The clerk gave a soft giggle. "It's OK -- I have another. I'm Theresa, by the way."

Awkwardly, Wes held out a hand. "I'm...ah...Al..." He was half way through the name before he realised he was about to call himself Alex. _Oh smart move **THERE**, Collins._ "Bert," he finished lamely.

  
"Well hi, there." Theresa shook his proffered hand. "Oh, my!" she gasped, feeling his grip, and then running her hand up over his forearm again. "You don't need to join, Albert -- you're already super strong."

Wes chuckled weakly; aware Jen was glaring holes through him. _You were the one who said I was single. She's a man-eater -- I could have told you that!_

"Now," Theresa purred, "that would be where your name goes..."

__

Too much more of this and I swear I'm gonna need a dentist.

Breaking the spell, a bell pinged loudly. Theresa glanced over her shoulder and spotted someone else waiting. A look of irritation marred her features and she gently tapped him on the nose.

  
"Don't go away -- I'll be right back."

__

Guess that would be saved by the bell, Wes decided, hastily setting down the clipboard and making good his escape. That was when he noticed that Jen had already vanished into the building.

__

Oh great. Man-eating receptionists -- and if there's a mutant in this place I'm putting my money on her -- and Jen decides to do a vanishing trick. Why did I ever let them talk me into this?

Wes cautiously made his way into the building, trying to snoop without being suspicious. Twice he was nearly caught by black tank-topped trainers but he managed to shrink back out of sight. Third time, however, he wasn't so lucky.

"This is a restricted area," grunted the trainer, starting forward from the doorway he was apparently guarding.

  
"Oh, I'm sorry," Wes answered, trying to make himself smaller and even less of an apparent threat. "Um...perhaps you can help me. I...I'm looking for my friend."

"Your friend?" the trainer echoed. "She about your height?" Wes nodded. "With long braded hair and glasses?" Wes nodded reluctantly. "You're right, I have seen her -- I think she's..."

"**NO**!"

Jen's scream came from directly behind the trainer.

__

Why am I **not** surprised? Wes tried darting past the trainer, but the beefy man just grabbed his shoulder and flung him backwards. Wes hit the corridor floor with a thud. _OK, that's it. All bets are off._ As he picked himself up off the floor, he pulled his chrono morpher from his pocket. As he did so, the trainer seemed to explode in a flash of light to reveal his true form.

"Well come and get some, bolt brain," Wes muttered, dropping into a ready stance.

The cyclobot charged. Wes turned into the direction of the robot's charge and used its momentum against it, sending it crashing to the floor in a clatter of broken bolts and sheered metal.

"**NO**!" Jen screamed again. "**Wes**!"

Having disposed of the cyclobot, Wes sprinted for the door and dashed into the gym. As he ran, he took in the details. There was Frax, maniacally cackling -- did that robot do anything else? Jen had been tied to a solid piece of gym equipment and was ringed round by more black tank-top wearing trainers -- cyclobots, in all probability. There was also a collection of oddly motionless civilians dressed in gold-coloured training gear, but Wes didn't spare them any further attention, concentrating instead on the trainer who was advancing on Jen with a glass of some kind of drink.

__

Guess that would be Katie's 'weird' drink. God knows what it does, but I'm guessing nothing good.

Wes dived forward, bulling the trainer off his feet.

"Wes!" Jen seemed genuinely pleased to see him.

Taking advantage of his element of surprise, Wes untied her hands. "C'mon!"

"**STOP THEM**!" Frax howled, the first to recover his senses.

But the call was too late, and they were out of the room and into the hallway. A couple of yards down it, and Wes pulled Jen off into a side turning that proved to be an enclosed stairwell. Five seconds passed and the sound of running feet went down the hallway.

"Lost them." Wes relaxed against the wall. "Are you OK?"

"What **took** you so long?!" Jen hissed. "You couldn't drag yourself away from 'Thereasuh'?"

Wes stared. "What?" Jen glared back. "You think I **like** her?"

"Oh no -- whatever could have given me **that** idea, **Al**bert," she drawled in a mocking impersonation of Theresa's syrupy tones.

"I had to make up a name," Wes retorted defensively.

"And I suppose you had to let her feel you up too," Jen snapped.

"I..." Before Wes could answer, a hand clamped down on his shoulder and jerked him through the doorway.

He found himself landing on the hallway floor staring up at the golden-suited civilians who were now all doing...more than passable impersonations of cyclobots, although thankfully without half the brains of the robo-drones as they allowed Wes to get back to his feet unmolested.

  
"What the...?"

"It's Frax's plan," Jen hissed, dragging him backwards down the hallway. "Turn 'em into human cyclobots."

"Which means we can't hit them but they can hit us," Wes commented.

"Uh-huh."

The human-robo-drones gave chase.

"Crap! It's a dead end!" Wes exclaimed.

"Maybe not!" Jen pointed at a fire exit. "You get that, I'll bar this door." She gestured at the internal fire doors.

Without wasting the energy to acknowledge the order, Wes turned his attention to the fire exit. Somehow it didn't surprise him that Frax had little interest in complying with city fire regs. The door was locked, but a couple of well-placed kicks splintered it into so much matchwood.

"Nice work," Jen commented. "C'mon." She led him through the now open door. As she went she shrugged off the knapsack and returned her morpher to her wrist.

Wes glanced up and stopped dead. "Uh Jen...I think we're toast." Confronting them was an entire army of cyclobots. Jen gave a gasp. "You got **any** ideas?"

"Oh, I'm sure you can think of something," she retorted. "After all, you're so **suuuuuuper** strong."

Wes shook his head in disbelief but before he could say a word in his own defence, the cyclobots confronting them all apparently spontaneously exploded. _What the...?_

"I just **knew** those guys were up to no good," Eric commented dryly as he joined them. He glanced over their mode of dress. "Nope. Not gonna ask. Don't wanna know."

Wes opened his mouth to say something, but Jen got in first.

"Thank you!" she cooed.

Wes felt his jaw loosen and drop open, although his reaction was comfortably beaten by the look on Eric's face. The Quantum Ranger's first reaction was surprise, but hot on the heels of surprise came a look of complete and utter horror.

"OK -- how about we get out of here first and flirt later?" Wes suggested pointedly._ I don't know what's gotten into Jen today unless..._ Wes bit back a smile. Jen was jealous. Again. Then he made the mistake of looking at Eric, who looked so absurdly relieved that he wasn't on the receiving end of some Neanderthal reaction on Wes' part that Wes thought he might actually pass out through attempting to not laugh.

Breaking the moment came a sinister laugh. Looking round, Wes spotted the source: A fairly unremarkable looking man in black workout gear.

"Mechanau," Jen hissed, suddenly all business again.

"You should have joined my gym, Pink Ranger," Mechanau called, fading into his taller and more menacing mutant form. "Then you might have been strong enough to face me."

"Oh, we'll see about that." Jen shot a glance in Wes' direction. "Ready?"

"Ready."

Somewhat to Wes' surprise, Eric also acknowledged Jen's call. _Has hell frozen over?_ Wes wondered. He logged it as one more thing he'd probably never understand about Eric, and morphed.

"Catch me if you can," Mechanau boomed.

"Catch this, you Circus Reject," Eric retorted, firing the Quantum Defender.

Mechanau just laughed and absorbed the laser blast.

"Something tells me that wasn't a good move," Wes murmured.

"That's the first thing you've said that I agree with," Mechanau shot back. Before anyone could do or say anything else, the mutant flung out his arm in a grand gesture.

There was time enough to spot the oncoming wave of energy but not enough time to do anything about it. Then the wave hit and the world turned cartwheel.

~*~

"Wes?"

The disembodied voice slowly filtered through Wes' clouded consciousness although it took several minutes, during which time the voice repeated his name with varying degrees of worry. Finally, Wes was able to focus and realise that not only was the voice familiar, it wasn't coming from outside his helmet -- but from inside.

It took another couple of seconds before his eyes focused on the apparent source of the voice. A small holograph of...

"Alex?!" _Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought._

"Jen's in trouble," Alex replied, not bothering to confirm his identity. "I can't be there myself -- so I'm counting on you."

Wes felt a surge of panic at the words 'Jen's in trouble'. "What do I have to do?"

Alex gave a terse sort of smile. "I'm sending you a new weapon -- the Strata Cycle. You **must** protect Jen."

The holograph winked out of existence before Wes could reply and Wes got the feeling there was a lot more to Alex's order than the other man was saying -- but if Alex wanted him to assist Jen, Wes was not about to argue. And then the data download for the Strata Cycle began.

The data rushed across the heads-up display at a rate of knots that for several seconds Wes doubted he'd even had a chance to **see** most of it, but then he realised that -- as had happened when he'd morphed for the first time -- the data had also downloaded itself into the back of his mind. Just another addition to the free-floating info-dump -- even if it was about to be put to immediate use.

Slowly, Wes got to his feet. Mechanau had his back to his own location. Eric was on his feet, but barely, trying to engage Mechanau in swordplay. Wes judged from the way Eric was moving -- and from the way Mechanau was all but ignoring the Quantum Ranger -- he was hurt. Jen was Mechanau's main focus. She was trying to fend the mutant off with her chrono-sabres but he was still landing harsh blows. She needed help.

"Strata cycle activate."

There was a brief second's pause and then a miniature time vortex opened and through it appeared something that looked like a cross between a speeder-bike from Star Wars and a regular motorbike. The strata cycle. It started to swoop down on his position, homing in on a signal from his morpher. As it neared him, Wes leapt up into the air and vaulted into the seat.

__

Luke Skywalker eat your heart out!

The bike jock in him wanted to spend some time just simply enjoying the engineering involved in the machine but as he pulled up out of the swoop he caught sight of the on going battle and everything else took a hasty and abrupt back seat.

__

Jen...

Mechanau had now disposed of Eric and was in the process of doing the same thing to Jen.

__

No you don't.

Pulling the cycle round in a tight, banking turn, Wes flicked on the weapons systems.

:::Mutant DNA Located::: :::Targeting::: :::Target acquired:::

The messages all scrolled across the tactical screen set in the centre of the 'handle bars' as Wes pushed the cycle into a steep dive. He was aware of Mechanau looking up, of Jen looking up too for that matter, but the only thing that mattered was the targeting display being shown on the heads-up display of his helmet. The instant it turned from green to red, indicating a good target lock, he fired off a burst of freeze-strike laser fire, then threw his weight right and yanked back on the steering to pull the cycle up and round for another pass.

:::Battle damage assessment: Shot 40% successful:::

__

Gotta make the next shot count.

This time, though, the ride in was not as smooth. The element of surprise was gone and Mechanau was fighting back. Waves of energy made the dive turbulent and verging on the uncontrolled. Wes fought the turbulence and struggled to get a second target lock.

__

C'mon!

The distance was closing rapidly and then suddenly Mechanau's attention snapped elsewhere -- which seemed strange until...

"Make your shot count Wes."

Eric's next word was an out and out scream of pain but almost to underline Eric's words, the targeting display turned red. Without hesitation, Wes fired.

Even as he was throwing himself left and hauling back on the steering to bring the cycle round for a potential third pass, Wes was aware of a chrono-freeze chain reaction starting.

:::Battle damage assessment: Mutant DNA neutralised:::

__

But how much damage have **we** taken on? Wes wondered as he brought the cycle in to land.

The first thing he noted was that Jen, while demorphed and visibly bruised, seemed to be OK as she created a chrono-capsule around Mechanau's chrono-frozen form. She looked up at the sound of the strata cycle landing.

"What is that?" she asked.

Wes smiled, even though he knew she couldn't see the expression. "The strata cycle." He dismounted, set the controls to return to the year 3000 and walked towards Jen as the cycle vanished in a blink of time-warp energy.

"We'd have been goners without it," she murmured.

Wes demorphed. "Are you OK?"

Jen nodded. "I think so."

"How 'bout Eric?" Wes asked.

"Eric's fine," answered the man himself.

Wes looked round and spotted Eric sitting, demorphed, a few yards away. The pallor of his face beneath the assorted cuts and bruises, though, made a lie of his comment.

A multitude of questions tumbled through Wes' mind, but Jen managed to sum them up neatly in one word,

"Why?"

For a second Wes thought Eric was going to pretend he didn't understand the question, then he gave a stiff shouldered shrug. "You needed Mechanau distracting, I could do it, therefore I did it." He started to struggle to his feet. "I was always trained to believe that was what team work was."

If anything, though, Eric's answer just added to Wes' confusion, but before he could so much as open his mouth, Katie, Trip and Lucas burst onto the scene.

"Oh **man** -- are we glad you guys are OK!" Katie exclaimed. "There were cyclobots **everywhere**!"

"Where've you guys been?" Jen asked. "Wasn't Circuit monitoring for mutant activity?"

"Of course!" Trip looked a little offended at the question.

"Frax had an army of cyclobots surrounding this place," Lucas answered. "We couldn't get here."

Wes listened with half an ear as Lucas made his report. What he wanted to do was ask Eric for more clarification, but looking round, the Quantum Ranger had vanished.

"...so the gym's clear now?" Jen was asking.

"Uh-huh. Whatever it was that Frax and Mechanau did to them, it had worn off when we got in there," Katie answered. "The Silver Guardians seemed to be looking after them, though."

Jen gave a nod. "OK. Good..." she trailed off, presumably noticing Eric's departure. "Good job everyone -- let's go home."

~*~

An hour, a hot shower and a change of clothes later and Wes found himself puttering about in the odd-jobs shop. Away from the heat of battle he had a chance to think through everything that had happened.

One thing was painfully clear: Alex still loved Jen very much. Regardless of how the man had acted when he'd actually been here, he loved her and, for want of a better phrase, he had first claim. _Yes it's going to hurt but it'll be better in the long run if I just step back._ And for the first time, he was actually relieved at how abortive his attempts at speaking to Jen had been the previous afternoon.

The other issue, however, was much less clear. Eric. He might have said his actions were prompted by a notion of teamwork -- but Wes could feel there was something else involved. And just what had he meant by 'trained to believe'? _I'll probably never know,_ Wes admitted, silently adding events to the growing list of things that flat out made no sense about Eric.

"Hey."

Wes started at the voice. Looking round, he spotted Jen, who had likewise got changed and cleaned up. "Hey." He smiled faintly.

"Um...you know...I did mean what I said earlier." Wes lifted his eyebrows in silent query. "About us being goners without the strata cycle...it was a good move. Thank you."

Wes felt uncomfortable at the praise. "It wasn't. My idea, that is." He headed across to the equipment store. "I can't take the credit."

"What do you mean?" Jen sounded confused.

  
Wes sighed and slowly turned to face her. "Alex sent the strata cycle...to help protect you." He turned back to the equipment store and started aimlessly sorting some of the hand tools. "I can see why you fell for him," he continued softly. "He's tough but...he's a really great guy."

"Yeah -- he is," Jen agreed.

"You...make a really great couple..."

"Wes wait," Jen cut in. She put her hand on his arm and gently pulled him round to face her. "What I was trying to tell you yesterday...was I..."

The wind chimes that hung next to the shop door chimed, signifying that the door had opened.

Wes half expected Jen's expression to turn relieved as it had done on the last few occasions she'd been trying to talk to him but for some reason she looked aggrieved. They both looked towards the door.

Standing in the doorway was a weedy looking guy who Wes thought he might have seen at the Super Strong Gym.

"Ah, hi," the man began.

Before either Jen or Wes could say anything, Lucas, Katie and Trip burst into the shop from upstairs. _What the...? Were they eavesdropping?_ Wes wondered.

"Can we help you?" Katie asked.

"Uh yes. I'm looking to hire a personal trainer -- you know to lift some weights and stuff?"

Wes watched as Lucas and Katie exchanged looks. "We have just the people right here," Lucas answered.

"Absolutely," Katie agreed.

Wes suddenly found that, along with Jen, he had become the main focus of attention in the room.

"Not me!" Jen exclaimed, shaking her head.

"Me either!" Wes added, putting his hands up in protest. "I've had enough weight lifting for one day."

But the protests didn't seem to be cutting any ice with anyone. "But you guys love working out," Lucas stated, not so gently trying to push them both in the direction of the door.

"No."

"I hate working out!"

"No... Lucas..."

It was no good. Wes found himself outside the odd-jobs shop along with Jen and the client.

"I'm going to kill them," Wes muttered.

"Or find some really nasty ways of getting even," Jen agreed.

"Well...shall we get started?" the client asked eagerly.

__

Lucas, Katie, Trip -- sure hope your life insurance is paid up...

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	18. The Coming Storm

Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me, the events don't belong to me and nor do the locations...heck, even some of the dialogue doesn't! It belongs to BVE. No money made, no harm intended.

This is a partial episode interpretation of _A Calm Before The Storm_ but is also going to tie up some of the dangling threads from earlier chapters. It's a quiet chapter after the last few action packed, angst packed chapters.

With thanks to Ekat for beta'ing again and for putting up with me moaning. Also to Ecolea and Leathie for the advice when certain conversations weren't working out properly.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing.

~*~

Identity -- The Coming Storm

Wes carefully climbed up onto the roof of the clock tower.

__

"That's the last mutant."

Trips words were ringing in his ears as he climbed.

It was good news -- Wes knew it was. It meant that things were almost wrapped up -- that there was just Ransik, Nadira, Frax and Gluto left. But...

__

They'll be going home. **Jen** will be going home.

Wes was still not sure quite where he stood with her. He was fairly sure that she felt the same way about him as he felt about her...if nothing else, her reaction to Theresa had been a give away. But there was also Alex to be considered -- and Wes had no clue as to how Jen felt about her fiancé. Part of him wanted to know, but part of him wanted to leave matters alone, particularly if she was going to be going back soon.

He was out onto the roof now, and there was Jen, sitting half way along the ledge.

When Trip had made his announcement, Katie, Lucas and Trip had started to celebrate their success and their imminent return to the thirtieth century, but while Jen had smiled at the news, there had been something brittle about the expression and a moment or two later, she'd vanished. It hadn't taken much of a thought for Wes to follow her.

As he cautiously made his way along the ledge Jen glanced up.

"Hey."

Wes smiled. "Keeping the pigeons company?"

She smirked faintly as he sat down. "I like to come out here when I have a lot on my mind -- it's so peaceful and beautiful."

Wes took a look at the view. "Yeah. It is." He glanced at Jen. "Don't tell me you're going to miss this draughty old clock tower?"

"There's a lot of things I'm going to miss," Jen admitted.

"Oh?"

"The clock tower, the people..." she trailed off and looked away, a faint blush tingeing her cheeks.

"You know, there's something that's been bothering me," Wes admitted, filling the silence that had suddenly sprung up. "Why me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean -- why me? Why did you come to me back when this first started?"

"Oh. That."

Wes smiled. "Yes, that. I mean when we first met, you..." he hunted for the right phrase. "You didn't want to have anything to do with me...I guess because of Alex, right?" Jen nodded. "Yet you showed up the next day and asked me to help you. Why? Why was I the only person who could help you?"

"The chrono morphers are DNA encoded," Jen explained, "so only the first user can use them...or someone who is a virtual DNA copy of the first user."

"Which is why Steelix couldn't use yours," Wes commented.

Jen nodded. "Exactly. When we met you...the resemblance between you and Alex was...disconcerting. When we realised we needed someone with Alex's DNA...well...whether I liked it or not..."

"You figured it would have to be me." Wes slowly shook his head. "And then I went and blew you off."

"But you came through in the end," Jen pointed out.

"And then blew it big time," Wes added, ruefully.

"I was too hard on you then."

"I was acting like a jerk," Wes admitted. "No-one had ever asked **me** for help before. Wanted me on side because of my father, yes, but just wanted me for me... I guess that kinda went to my head."

"What do you mean?" Jen asked, confused.

"I was a jerk -- I know I was."

"No -- not that. Do you really mean that? About us being the first people to ask **you** for help?" Wes nodded. "More fool everyone else, then. You're a great guy, Wes. And a great ranger."

It was Wes' turn to blush.

"Was there something you wanted?" she asked, eventually.

Wes hesitated for a moment, debating what to say before finally answering, "N...no. Just...came to see if you were OK."

"You going back in, then?"

Wes thought about it for a second. "You mind if I stay and enjoy the view?"

"No." She sounded pleased. "I don't mind at all."

A companionable silence sprung up between them.

"Wonder how Mr Feeny's doing now," Jen said presently.

Wes snickered, recalling the man they had been briefly employed to personally train a week or so earlier. "Probably about as well as he was when we left him with that regimen."

"I feel kinda bad about not trying to help him more but..."

"You can't help what isn't help-able, especially when it wants the quick fix," Wes pointed out.

Jen laughed softly. "True."

"More to the point, have you figured out how to get back at Lucas and Katie for foisting him off on us?"

"Performance reviews," Jen hinted darkly.

Wes grinned. "That's cruel."

"Fitting, though."

"Yep."

"Wes?"

Wes turned to look at Jen at the direct query. "Hmm?"

"Did you think Eric was acting strangely during that whole mess?"

Wes thought back to the fight with Mechanau. "Yeah. I guess it **could** have had something to do with you flirting with him..."

"I did **no** such thing," Jen cut in primly.

Wes' mouth quirked into a slight smile. "Well **you** might not have thought you did, but **he** did. I don't think I've ever seen anyone look quite so disconcerted."

Jen's smile returned. "It was a bit 'deer-in-the-headlightsy'," she agreed. "You think it could have been that?"

Wes shrugged. "With Eric, who can tell?"

"Think he'd tell us if we asked?"

"I doubt it -- this is Eric 'I don't need anybody' Myers we're talking about."

"True."

They looked at each other.

"It can't hurt to try," Wes mused.

"And we ought to tell him that the last of the mutant criminals have been caught," Jen commented.

~*~

"What a **ditz**!" Jen muttered as Wes led her into the Silver Guardians' complex.

"She's better than the first two," Wes replied. They were discussing the receptionist who was yet another variation. "At least she's pleasant."

"I can't see Eric putting up with her for long," Jen retorted.

Wes chuckled. "Nope." He came to a halt outside Eric's office door. "This is it." He glanced at Jen. "You wanna go first this time?"

"Sure." Jen knocked.

"If this is Mary-Sue, no I do **not** want a cup of coffee, or a sandwich or anything else!"

"Want to bet what the ditz's name is?" Wes muttered.

"I don't bet on certainties," Jen retorted, and pushed the door open.

"I said..." Eric began.

"It's OK -- we're not the ditz on the front desk," Jen stated.

Wes watched as first relief at the realisation they weren't his secretary then irritation as he realised who they were washed across Eric's face before his expression settled on resignation.

"What?" Eric asked.

"Two things," Wes replied, closing the door behind them.

Wes watched as Eric glanced from him to Jen and back. "Am I going to like either of them?"

"Depends," Jen replied, leaning against the edge of the desk. "First thing is that Ransik's out of mutant criminals. It's just him, Nadira, Gluto and Frax left."

"That sounds pretty good to me," Eric admitted grudgingly. "Which must mean that was the good news."

"If you wanna look at it that way," said Jen.

"The other thing's..." Wes hesitated. "Why did you do what you did against Mechanau?"

Eric looked mildly startled. "I thought I explained that the other day. It needed to be done, I could do it -- therefore I did it."

Jen shook her head. "That's not what we mean."

"Then perhaps you could explain it to me and let me get back to writing this duty roster," Eric retorted, gesturing to the sheet of paper on his desk.

Wes glanced at Jen. "What we mean," he began carefully, "is why were you there at all?"

"Because I knew they were up to no good," Eric answered, looking aggravated and puzzled at the same time.

"So you had them under surveillance?" Jen suggested.

"Yeah."

"You personally?" Wes queried.

"Yeah. Look," Eric muttered, "I really do have things to do -- so if this has a point, get to it."

"Why?" Wes asked.

"Because I have a duty roster that needs completing, a batch of personnel reports to write and some CVs to look over, preferably **this** side of Christmas," Eric retorted.

"No -- why were **you** doing the surveillance?" Jen questioned.

Wes watched as Eric's protests suddenly died and his expression turned noticeably self-conscious.

"Why shouldn't I have been doing it?" he finally muttered.

"You don't think it's kinda weird that the commander is the guy doing the surveillance?" Jen asked.

Eric shrugged. "So?"

"Look at it from our point of view," said Wes eventually. "You were acting..."

"Out of character," Jen supplied.

"Oh, and I suppose you two **weren't**?" Eric snorted.

"We were there undercover," said Wes, hoping that Eric **wouldn't** raise Jen's reaction to the rescue from the cyclobot army.

"Uh-huh." Eric shrugged. "If you say so."

"Eric, what's the harm in telling us?" Jen tried.

"You wouldn't understand," Eric replied. "Now, really -- guys. I **do** have work to do."

"Try us."

Eric just shook his head. "You **wouldn't** understand."

Wes sighed. "It's no good, Jen -- he doesn't trust us."

Eric snorted. "Trust has nothing to do with it, Collins."

"Then why don't you tell us?" Jen retorted.

Eric put his head in his hands and groaned. "Will it mean you two get outa here and let me get on with what I'm supposed to be doing?"

Wes glanced at Jen. "Of course," he replied.

"All right." Wes had to strain to hear Eric's next words. "They were using Hideo Koto's dojo. Hideo Koto was my sensei...was a good friend to me...I wasn't prepared to let some mutant use his building and soil his memory."

Jen looked only faintly startled by the revelation, Wes noted. Eric's whole bearing, however, was of a man expecting at any second to hear laughter.

"Seems reasonable to me," was all Wes actually said.

"And me," Jen agreed.

Eric's head jerked up. He stared at Jen and then Wes felt the weight of his glare. "No snide comments?"

"Nope," said Jen.

"Why would I?" Wes answered. Eric's eyes narrowed as though he was testing the two answers. "Eric, why do you think I chose to become a ranger in the first place?"

"Or why I became a Time Force officer," put in Jen.

Eric didn't appear to have a reply to either statement.

"C'mon -- we did say we'd go," said Wes.

Jen nodded. "True. See you later, Eric."

"Huh."

Jen rolled her eyes and headed for the office door. Wes shook his head and followed.

~*~

"I wonder about that guy, sometimes," Jen mused as they slowly made their way back to the clock tower.

"How do you mean?" Wes replied.

"Well...every time I think he might actually be a real human being underneath that cold, miserable exterior, he goes and proves me wrong."

Wes chuckled. "That's Eric for you," he agreed.

"But **why**?"

"To be honest," Wes admitted, "I don't know."

"But you went to school with him."

"True -- and for virtually the whole time he acted pretty much the same way as he does now. Kept everyone at arms length." Wes frowned for a second. "There is a good guy in there, though -- I'm sure of it."

"Oh, I suppose on one level so am I," Jen agreed. "But what's it going to take before he can admit it to himself?"

"That," said Wes, "would be the sixty four thousand dollar question."

"The what?"

Wes grinned and shook his head.

Before Jen could say anything more, her morpher bleeped. She acknowledged the call and Trip's holograph formed.

"Guys? Where are you?" he asked.

"Just been to see Eric," Jen replied. "To tell him the good news about the mutants."

"Can you get back here quickly?"

"Sure but...what's up?"

"It's Alex," Trip replied. "He wants to talk to all of us."

"We're on our way," said Jen and cut the connection. "I wonder what Alex wants."

"I wonder," Wes echoed quietly.

"C'mon."

Wes followed in Jen's wake. The second Trip had mentioned Alex the nagging sense of doom returned.

__

Whatever it is he wants, it's not going to be good...

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	19. Endgame

Disclaimer: The characters and basic events don't belong to me, they belong to BVE but I'm making no money out of this and no offence is intended.

This is an interpretation of the whole End of Time arc with various plot holes filled; plot nits removed and the threads that were left dangling by the original episodes all nicely tied up. (I hope!)

Thank you to Ekat for beta'ing this and putting up with me (I really AM not worthy!). Thanks to Gamine for also taking a look over this and spotting some nits and to Selma for making sure Alex remained in character. Thank you also to Ecolea and Leathie for listening to me whine and for providing me with a wealth of help and information and to Chris without whom the battle of the clock tower would have been vastly harder.

I know this is another chapter that a lot of people have been waiting for -- I hope you enjoy it.

~*~

Identity -- Endgame

Wes arrived back in the clock tower's attic, breathless from trying to keep up with Jen. Lucas, Trip and Katie were gathered around the holoscreen. On seeing them enter, Trip pressed one of the controls on the holoscreen and it flared into life.

"Alex, they're here."

"Good."

To Wes' ears, Alex sounded annoyed. _Probably doesn't like being kept waiting._ But as he joined the group around the holoscreen, he realised that Alex wasn't annoyed so much as worried. _Not good._

"Rangers," Alex began, "your mission's nearly complete."

"We know," Trip replied, grinning. "It means we get to come home soon. Right?"

Alex shook his head. "Wrong."

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"What?" Lucas was the first person to recover.

"Alex, what do you mean?" Jen asked quietly.

Alex started to pace. "Details are...unclear," he admitted, "but according to the history banks, there was..." he smiled faintly, "will be a massive attack, centred on Silverhills."

"Attack?" Jen echoed.

Alex nodded. "I can't say any more than that..."

"Can't or won't?" Lucas cut in.

Wes watched as a strange expression crossed Alex's face. It seemed to be a mix of resignation and relief. Then it was gone and in its place was a somewhat sheepish smile. "Can't, I'm afraid. As I said, the details are very unclear. What is clear though..." Alex suddenly stopped pacing and turned to face them directly, all traces of levity gone from his face. "None of you survive to make it back."

There was a long, stunned silence as Alex's words sank in. Wes felt as though the bottom had just dropped out of his stomach. They were all going to die and by implication, soon. 

"What do you mean we don't survive?" Katie asked, finally breaking the silence. Alex shrugged a little helplessly. "There must be something we can do -- some way to stop this..."

Alex shook his head again. "No -- there's no way to prevent the attack." He paused. "There is, however, a way to escape."

What was left of Wes' stomach tightened in nervous anticipation. He had a bad feeling about what was coming...

"How?" Lucas wanted to know.

"I'm sending the time ship," Alex replied. "The four of you must return to the year 3000 immediately."

"The four of us?" Trip echoed.

"What about Wes?" Katie asked.

Alex nodded and sighed. "Unfortunately, he's not from our time period." Wes felt Alex's gaze fall on him directly. "Wes -- you have to remain in your own time. I'm sorry. There's no other way."

Wes swallowed. He'd had a feeling that was what Alex was going to say.

"The only thing we can say for sure," Alex continued, "is that the attack will produce a great deal of temporal distortion. Once it begins it will cease to be safe for me to even send the megazords. You **must** leave before the attack begins."

Before anyone could argue any further, Alex cut the connection, leaving them staring at the now blank holoscreen.

"What are we going to do?" Katie finally asked.

Wes watched as Jen sighed. "I don't know," she admitted.

~*~

__

He was hemmed in. Nowhere to turn...no friends to turn to...on his own. It wasn't their fault. They couldn't help it -- it had been someone else's doing. It was all someone else's doing. Everything was wrong. Someone was in danger. He had to go there...but where? Who? Then he was there...wherever there was and he could see who needed his help. Jen. No...

Wes woke with a start, heart hammering a mile a minute in his chest. Not that nightmare again. He swallowed. _I thought that got taken care of when we destroyed Dragontron._ He shuddered.

"You all heard Alex's orders."

Jen's voice floated up from the main attic, pulling Wes out of his introspection and prompting him to notice that the others weren't in bed. He rolled out of his sleeping bag and crawled across to the edge of the sleeping platform to peer down into the main attic. Below him, around the table were the others. _What the...?_

"We need to decide what we're going to do," Jen continued, "and it needs to be unanimous."

"We need to take a vote," Lucas contributed.

Wes had heard enough. He quietly padded down the stairs as first Jen, then Katie, then Trip, then finally Lucas, all pledged they were 'in'.

"What are you guys doing?" Wes asked as he reached the bottom of the steps.

Jen glanced at the others before turning to face Wes. "We've made a decision."

"A decision?" Wes echoed.

Jen nodded. "We're not going back in the time ship."

Wes stared, wondering if he'd heard Jen correctly. "But Alex said..."

"We know what Alex said," Lucas replied.

"But..."

Trip smiled. "If you can make your own destiny, so can we."

"Wes, we're a team," Katie finished. "No matter what."

Wes dredged up a watery smile, although it was a struggle.

"Besides," Jen put in. "Alex wasn't sure of the details. It'll work out fine."

Wes nodded, but as he did so, he felt bile hit the back of his throat as the remnants of the nightmare returned. He knew with a frightening level of surety that, team or not, if Jen, Lucas, Trip and Katie remained in this time period, they were going to wind up dead.

"Wes?" Jen waved a hand in front of his face, forcing him to refocus his attention. She looked concerned. "Are you OK?"

He swallowed. "Yeah...yeah. I'm fine."

The look he got from Jen told him she knew full well he was lying but that she wasn't going to push. Instead, she said, "OK guys. Let's hit the sack -- we've got a lot to do tomorrow. Even if we aren't going back, there's a lot of things that are."

Wes nodded along with everyone else, but he knew, as he headed back up to the sleeping platform, sleep was going to be difficult to come by.

~*~

After a very poor night's sleep, Wes felt both jaded and oddly antsy. He tried to make himself useful to the others as they packed up the assorted bits and pieces that needed to go back to the year 3000 but after dropping the fifth item Jen had handed to him to place in one of the hard cases, she stopped him.

"What's up?" she asked.

Wes shrugged. "Guess I didn't sleep too well."

Jen gave him a critical look. "Want to talk about it?"

Wes considered the offer for a moment. _Sure -- I spent most of the night dreaming about seeing you guys die in a variety of hideous ways._ "Nah -- nothing to talk about."

Jen gave him another searching look, then shrugged. "If you say so." She turned back to the hard case she was trying to pack. "Maybe you should go out for a walk or something -- clear your head."

Wes nodded thoughtfully. "Are you sure that would be OK?"

Jen looked up again. "Well it's not as if you're making a useful contribution here this morning!"

Wes grinned sheepishly. "Good point."

"Go on -- meet us at the time ship," Jen suggested.

"If you're sure..."

"Go on. Get!" Jen pointed towards the door.

Wes snickered in spite of himself. "I'm going!"

He headed out of the clock tower and into the early morning sunlight.

What was he going to do? From one point of view, he knew that the decision to stay was not his to take. Trip was right -- if he could challenge his destiny, so could anyone else. But... Wes grimaced. If they stayed, they were going to die. Could he let that happen? And was there anything he could do about it?

He wished there was someone he could ask for advice, but his only options were his father and Eric. While he might have repaired his relationship with his father, and while he might trust Eric on a basic level, he didn't really think that either of them would have any useful advice on the matter.

Breaking his train of thought, his morpher bleeped. Absently, he acknowledged the call, expecting to see Jen or possibly Circuit.

"Wes."

Alex's holograph and voice startled Wes completely. "Alex!"

Alex looked faintly amused. "I need you to do something for me."

Wes felt his skin grow cold. "What?"

Alex sighed. "I need you to go to the time ship and set the autopilot controls. I know what Jen and the others are planning..."

"No." Wes shook his head. "I can't do that -- it's their decision to stay."

"And **you** know what's going to happen if they stay."

Wes stared at Alex. "What do you mean?"

"Nice try, Wes," Alex retorted, "but I know you. I can see you haven't slept."

"So?" Wes was defensive.

Alex gave a wry smile. "You trying to tell me you didn't have nightmares last night?" Wes stared at his doppelganger. "Don't look at me like that, Wes -- like I said. I know you."

"How?"

"This," and the holographic Time Force officer produced a familiar, leather-bound book, "is a family heirloom of mine."

"That's my journal, isn't it?"

Alex nodded. "It is."

"We're related?"

Wes sensed that Alex was rolling his eyes, but the holograph wasn't clear enough to tell. "Yes. And I know you spent last night suffering with nightmares."

Wes knew Alex was manipulating him, but... "What are you saying?" he asked quietly.

"I'm saying you **know** what's going to happen if they don't return to this time," Alex replied. "And I'm giving you a way of preventing that."

__

This was what you wanted, Wes reminded himself. "How?"

There was a faint smile on Alex's face. "Morph and I can send you all the information you'll need to programme the time ship's autopilot."

Wes weighed up his alternatives. _Jen...I hope you can understand this._ "OK."

Alex nodded once and cut the connection. Wes glanced around his current location: A blind alley about a mile or so away from the clock tower, well out of general sight. Perfect.

"Time for Time Force."

Within milliseconds of the morph completing, Wes felt the data transfer begin. As had happened with the strata cycle, the data rushed up the heads up display at a speed far to fast to actually read, but as it did so, he could feel it downloading into the back of his mind and adding itself to the floating info-dump that being a ranger had left him with.

The final piece of data, however, didn't flash by. Instead it stopped for a moment. Long enough for Wes to read it: Thank you -- it's up to you now. That was clearly going to be Alex's last piece of communication on this subject.

Wes nodded to himself and demorphed. _Guess I'd better head for the time ship -- this could take me some time._

~*~

As Wes completed the final piece of programming, he heard the others arrive.

"I'm sure that's Wes' bike back on the road." Katie's voice floated into the time ship, faint but clear.

Wes felt a brief moment of panic -- if they caught him in here, they were liable to figure he was up to something. Unless...

__

Jen knows I didn't sleep well. Can I convince them that I got here, sat down and dozed off?

Even as he was wondering that, he finished the programming, slipped the remote trigger into his pocket and took up one of the command seats. It was not the greatest of plans but feigning sleep was something Wes had turned into an art form. It had saved him from countless punishments when he'd been in school, when various of his dorm-mates and he had been out after hours.

No sooner had he put his head down and closed his eyes than he heard them enter.

"Wes?" Trip called.

"He's in here," Jen commented, walking into the control room.

"Asleep?" Lucas sounded dubious.

"He didn't sleep well last night," Jen replied, "and he looked like hell this morning."

"That's true," Katie agreed. "Do we wake him now?"

There was a pause. "We'd better -- we're going to need his help if we're going to get everything loaded," Jen decided.

Wes forced himself not to tense up as he heard her approach. This was going to be tricky, neither over doing nor under-doing the reaction.

"Nonono," said Lucas. "Not like that."

Before Wes could wonder about that statement, a pair of hands came down on Wes' shoulders. Wes didn't have to fake the startled exclamation.

"Lucas!" Jen complained. "You didn't have to do that!"

Lucas snickered.

"What was that about?" Wes asked, yawning.

"Just making sure you were really asleep," Lucas replied.

"Lucas!" Katie admonished.

"Huh?" Wes queried. _Lucas is suspicious -- gotta go careful._

Jen shot Lucas a puzzled look. "Look -- doesn't matter. We need to get everything loaded. Trip -- you, Lucas and Katie stow the criminals. Wes -- you and I will load the other equipment." When no-one moved, Jen clapped her hands. "C'mon guys -- we **don't** have much time here."

Wes spent the next hour wondering how he was going to complete Alex's mission while outwardly concentrating on the tasks that Jen gave to him. And then strangely, it was Lucas who provided him with the opening he needed.

"That's the last of the mutants," he announced.

"Is that the last of this stuff?" Jen asked, looking to Wes.

"Think so -- le'me go check," Wes answered.

Jen nodded absently. "Sure."

Wes turned to leave the time ship.

"I'll come with you..." Lucas began.

Before Wes could say anything, Jen said, "Lucas what is with you today? Anyway -- I need a hand programming the auto pilot."

Wes made good his escape. As he stepped off the exit ramp onto the sand of the beach, he pressed the remote trigger and was rewarded by the hatch sliding closed behind him, closely followed by the sound of the ramp being withdrawn. As he got a little further away from the time ship, he heard the turbines start up.

As he cleared the downdraft area, he heard his morpher bleep. Without needing to acknowledge the call he knew it was going to be Jen. Sure enough...

"Wes? What's going on?"

Wes swallowed. "Orders from Alex," he replied.

"What?!" Jen sounded outraged.

"Wes?" echoed Katie, sounding less outraged and rather more puzzled.

"You **have** to go back to the year 3000," Wes replied.

"But..." Katie began.

"Wes, I thought we agreed -- we're a team," said Trip.

Wes closed his eyes. "We are a team -- but you **have** to go back."

"I'm not leaving! I'm not..." Katie screamed.

"I can't let you stay and watch you die," Wes replied.

"But what about you?" Jen whispered.

"This could kill **you**," commented Lucas.

Wes gave a shrug. "I'm willing to take that risk."

"Then..." Lucas started, but the sound of the boosters cutting in swallowed whatever it was he said.

"Wes I have to tell you something!" Jen yelled over the sound of the boosters. "I..."

But Wes shook his head. "Everything you've wanted is waiting for you."

"But...I..."

The rest of Jen's reply was cut off as the time ship slowly started to lift off. Shielding his face from the sand kicked up, Wes watched as the vessel rose into the air, forming a time hole above it. Moments later and the ship entered the vortex and then vanished.

Wes sighed.

For better or worse, it was done.

And then, absurdly, his morpher bleeped.

__

What the...?

"Wes?"

In spite of knowing that the others were now gone, Eric's voice still startled Wes. "Go ahead, Eric."

"Where the hell **are** you guys?" Eric snapped. "Ransik has launched the mother of all attacks and..."

__

And so it begins. "I'm on my way," Wes cut in before cutting the comm. connection and suiting action to words by heading off the beach for where he had parked his bike.

~*~

Downtown Silverhills was in complete chaos when Wes arrived. Panicked civilians were being urged out of the area by harried teams of Silver Guardians while squads of Cyclobots roamed the streets and preyed on anything that moved.

It didn't take long for Wes to have to abandon his bike and progress on foot as the press of people became too much.

"Wes!"

Wes stopped at the shout. Looking round, though, all he spotted were Silver Guardians. No-one that he recognised by name, although some of the faces looked familiar.

"Eric said," continued the voice -- which Wes eventually attributed to the broad-shouldered, black Silver Guardian standing to his left, "to tell you that he and the Q-Rex were taking on whatever the hell it is that Ransik's sent to trash the city."

"Don't suppose he said where?" Wes replied, a little surprised that Eric even left that much information.

The Silver Guardian smiled faintly and jerked a thumb in a down town direction. "That way and follow the rubble."

Wes nodded. "Thanks." He turned to go.

"Hey, Wes?" the Silver Guardian added.

Wes looked over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"Good luck, man."

Wes nodded. "You too."

Wes headed in the direction the Silver Guardian had indicated. It didn't take long before he came upon ground zero. The Q-Rex was lying, belly down and immobile, clearly too damaged to play any further role in the battle for now. Towering over the downed zord was another robot, presumably Ransik or Frax's final attempt at world domination. Its attention was elsewhere as it tore into some of the downtown warehousing, something that Wes had mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it meant he was unnoticed, but on the other, it meant there was going to be a **lot** of damage.

Even as he was deciding that, however, a large, bruise coloured time hole opened up almost directly over one of the destroyed warehouses. _What the...?_ Wes could only stare in horror as the debris from the warehouse was slowly sucked into the time hole. Within a minute, the time hole was closed and the debris was gone. _Holy shit..._

A howl of pain dragged Wes' attention away from the rampaging robot and redirected it to a previously unnoticed swarm of Cyclobots. _Someone's in trouble,_ he realised. That was all the prompting he required.

Wes charged forward, yelling, "Hey Bolt-brains! How 'bout you pick on somebody else?"

The Cyclobots all turned to face Wes as he reached them.

"Well bring it on."

The robots charged at him as a group. Wes met their charge. He grabbed the first bot as it neared him; turning into its path and using its own momentum to hip toss it. As he released his hold on that one, he pivoted, kicking out at the next robot sending it crashing into the third.

Three down, but the rest of the pack -- about seven or eight Cyclobots - had surrounded him. _Gotta use their numbers against 'em._ One of the bots lunged forward at him. He side-stepped the lunge and as the bot stumbled, taken beyond its point of balance, he donkey kicked it, sending it sprawling into the arms of another Cyclobot. But before he could straighten up after the kick, an enterprising robot grabbed his foot and pulled.

For a moment, Wes teetered. _If that's the way you want it..._ He twisted in the robot's grip and then jumped, kicking out at the startled Cyclobot with his other leg. His foot was freed as the bot fell backwards.

Wes landed, rolled and came back to his feet in one, fluid motion, only to be grabbed by two Cyclobots. A third Cyclobot charged forward, Cyclosabre held aloft, clearly intending to split him in two. Using the grip on his arms, Wes jumped into a two-footed kick. The blow landed on the point of the oncoming robot's 'chin', sending it flying backwards. Before the two bots holding him could process that, he had completed the backward summersault, breaking their grip on his arms.

As he landed on his feet, just behind the two Cyclobots, he lashed out with both fists, connecting with their backs and sending them stumbling forwards. Then before they could recover, a couple of blaster bolts finally put pay to them.

Wes cautiously looked around, knowing that there should be two more bots left, but he realised that blaster bolts had also put paid to them. Another glance around revealed the source of the blaster fire: Eric.

"I was managing just fine," Eric muttered.

That was when it fully dawned with Wes that the Cyclobots' victim had been Eric. He now noted the visible bruising and the way Eric was favouring his left side. "Sure you were."

Eric glared and opened his mouth to say something, but what came out was, "Get **down**!"

Wes didn't hesitate in diving for the ground. Cyclosabre fire exploded overhead and was met by blaster fire from Eric.

"Wes, we gotta get outta here," Eric yelled.

Cautiously looking over his shoulder, Wes saw an approaching army of Cyclobots. Morphing would help matters, but that would only delay the inevitable. _Besides,_ Wes thought, glancing back at Eric, _there's no way Eric's up to another all out brawl just yet._

"You got it."

Eric continued to fire at the advancing Cyclobots. "Count of three. One..." Eric started to back up. "Two..." Wes moved into a crouch. "Three!"

With a last snapped off shot, Eric turned and bolted, Wes not far behind him.

~*~

"Something...'s puzzling me," Eric gasped, resting against an alley wall, while they waited for a group of Cyclobots to leave the general area of the clock tower. "Where're the others?"

"Gone," Wes answered.

"Gone?"

"Back to the future. Al...ah...their commander recalled them."

Eric gave a quiet bark of bitter laughter. "Your friends abandoned you, huh?"

"They followed their orders," Wes retorted tightly, not wanting to get into this argument with Eric.

"Tell yourself that enough times, you'll start to believe it, too," Eric replied. "Coast's clear," he added, before Wes could say anything else.

Wes shelved what he'd been about to say in favour of heading for the clock tower. "C'mon." He led Eric across to the clock tower. "Just hope Jen left the first aid kit behind."

"What for?" Eric asked, clearly bemused.

As Wes headed through the odd jobs shop towards the stairs he glanced back at Eric. "To patch you up."

"I'm all right," Eric snapped.

"Just keep telling yourself that, Eric, and maybe you'll believe it," Wes retorted.

They climbed the stairs in stony silence.

"How many stairs?" Eric finally muttered.

Wes glanced back and noted that Eric's face had taken on a distinctly unhealthy, grey pallor. "Eric why didn't you say something sooner?"

"Say what? I'm all right."

"If you're alright," Wes retorted, "why do you look like you're about to pass out?"

Eric glared. "I am all right," he gritted. "Just get moving."

Wes sighed and turned back to continue up the stairs. "It's not much further." Eric made no reply.

As prophesised, it was only a couple of minutes before they finally reached the attic. Looking around, Wes was quietly surprised how much of the junk and clutter had gone. _I never really realised how much of the stuff here wasn't from this time._ There, on the table, however, was the first aid kit. _Didn't think Jen would have sent that back._ Wes crossed the attic towards the table, aware that Eric was entering the attic behind him.

"**You** lived **here**?" Eric murmured, surprise and incredulity ripe in his voice.

"Yeah."

"I'm impressed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wes asked, opening the first aid kit.

"Well this is hardly what you're used to," Eric replied.

Wes shrugged. "I guess." He turned back to Eric. "Now, you gonna tell me what's wrong?"

"I don't need your help."

Wes ground his teeth in frustration. "Eric, you're hurt..."

"I **don't** need your help," Eric spat. "Why should you want to help me anyway?"

Wes sighed. "Because we are all this city has right now. We have to work together..."

"I've told you, I don't **do** team work. It gets you dead," Eric replied flatly.

Wes' frayed temper finally snapped. "Look what is **with** you?" he yelled. "I've been trying for years to be your friend and every time you just throw it back at me..."

"My **friend**," Eric sneered. "You don't know the first thing about me."

"So enlighten me."

"You wouldn't understand," Eric hissed. "You were born with everything handed to you. You never had to work hard for anything. You were rich. We don't have anything in common."

"Don't we?" Wes retorted.

"No. We don't. Do you know what I got given in my life?" Eric asked. Without waiting for Wes to answer, Eric stepped into Wes' personal space. "I'll tell you. Nothing. No-one has ever given a rat's ass one way or the other about me. Anything I've ever had in life I have had to work damn hard for. So don't you tell me we have anything in common because we don't."

Wes stared at Eric. "You arrogant, self-righteous son of a bitch. What the hell do you really know about me to make that judgement?"

"You're rich," Eric retorted, as though that explained everything.

Before Wes consciously realised what he was doing, he grabbed a fist full of Eric's shirt and pinned him up against a nearby roof support. "What the hell do you think that has to do with anything?" Eric looked fractionally sheepish. "I suppose you think that because of my background my life has been easy?"

"Well it sure don't make it tough."

"OK. Well try this. You say no-one's ever cared one way or the other about you. Trust me, that's better than knowing no matter how hard you work; how hard you try; how much effort you put in...it's never enough. It's never 'hey, you did well today' it's always 'you missed this point' or 'you dropped those marks' or 'I expect to see you do better'. Try knowing that no matter what you do, you're always going to be compared to someone else, and you know you're always going to be found wanting in that comparison. Try knowing that no matter how hard you try, all your efforts are going to get hurled right back at you. And try knowing that no matter how many times you get kicked because of it, you know you're still going to keep trying because maybe, just maybe this time it'll be different."

"What do you mean?" For the first time, Wes thought he could hear something different in Eric's voice.

"What do you think I mean?" Wes shot back. "Money might buy the things you think you want; it can never buy the things you **need**. No matter **what** Peter Vincent and Matt Elliott might have convinced you of way back when you first joined Billingsley." Eric's eyes widened at the two names and Wes judged he'd hit the right nerve. "Do you know where they are right now?" Eric gave a minuscule shake of the head -- the most he could manage, given the way Wes was pinning him to the support beam. "Matt got kicked out of Billingsley about three months after you left. Last I heard, he was on his third stint in rehab. As for Peter, his parents cut off his allowance when he failed his junior year. He barely got through with a GED and the last I heard of him, he was working in a shoe store."

"Oh."

Wes nodded. "And believe me, you weren't the only person those two worked over. They might have said it was because of your being there on scholarship but trust me, they were bullies, plain and simple."

"Never saw them picking on you," Eric muttered.

Wes gave a predatory grin. "Only because I'd handed their asses to them in sixth grade."

Eric looked both startled and wary. "Is that what you're going to do now?"

"That all depends," Wes answered. "Are you going to continue being an arrogant jerk? If you are then I'll do to you what I did to the last arrogant jerk I had any dealings with."

Eric sighed in both defeat and humiliation. "Vincent or Elliott?"

Wes released his hold on Eric's shirtfront and stepped back, a faint smile on his face. "Neither, as it goes, but you're on the right track."

Eric drew in a breath to say something, but what came out was a groan of pain.

"Oh geez... Eric, don't give me any bullshit..."

"Ribs," Eric finally admitted between clenched teeth. Wes winced.

"OK. Which side?"

Eric stared at Wes. "What the hell do you know about broken ribs?"

Wes gave a rueful smile. "More than you'd think. Which side?"

"Left."

Wes had just about guessed that much from the way Eric had been favouring his left side. "If you can get your shirt off, I can tape 'em up for you."

But Eric shook his head. "What pain killers have you got in that kit?"

"What?"

"I just need something to get me through the pain. The ribs can take care of themselves. The docs didn't tape 'em last time they got busted -- just gave me pain meds. 'Sall I need now." Eric managed to dredge up some semblance of a smile. "Besides, no offence or anything, but you're nowhere near as cute as Jen is."

"Meaning what?" Wes asked sharply.

Eric's smile faltered at Wes' reaction. "Not what you're thinking."

Wes blinked. "Huh?"

"Jen isn't my type."

"Oh." Wes frowned. "What did you mean?"

"You give me pain killers, I'll explain," Eric replied, grimacing.

"OK." Wes still felt dubious about the method of treatment. _I guess he knows what he's doing._ He rummaged around in the first aide kit until he found the bottle of Advil. "Here."

Eric took the bottle. "Thanks." He looked at the label for a moment before opening the bottle and dry-swallowing two of the brick red pills.

"You know I could have got you a glass of water," Wes commented as Eric grimaced again, this time presumably at the taste of the Advil tablets.

"Yeah well...sorta got used to taking 'em that way."

"Oh." There didn't seem to be a lot else Wes could say in response to that. "So what **did** you mean about Jen?"

Eric gave a lopsided sort of grin. "Who would you rather be nursed by? A guy or a cute girl?"

"Thought you said Jen wasn't your type."

Eric held up his hands in a placatory gesture. "She isn't. That doesn't mean I can't tell whether or not she's cute."

"I guess."

Embarrassed at getting caught reacting jealously for the second time in five minutes, Wes busied himself putting the first aide kit away. Behind him, he heard Eric walk across to the table and ease himself down onto the bench.

"So what's morphing with broken ribs like?" Eric asked.

"You probably ought to take it easy..."

"Like you said," Eric cut in, "we're all the city has. I don't have a choice. Do I?"

Wes sighed. "Guess not."

"So...?"

"Painful," Wes admitted, turning back to face Eric.

"So is just about everything else when you have broken ribs," Eric retorted.

"True."

There was an awkward silence, into which the sound of shattering glass was unnaturally loud.

"What the...?!"

Hundreds of Cyclobots poured into the attic through the windows, skylights and up the stairs. Wes found himself standing back to back with Eric and utterly surrounded.

"Thought you said they didn't know where this place was," Eric muttered.

"They don't."

"They have a funny way of showing it," Eric shot back.

Wes found himself snickering. "Are you ready for this?"

"You take half, I'll take half," Eric answered.

"You got it."

Without waiting for any further prompting, Wes dived forward into the mêlée, aware of Eric doing exactly the same behind him, but it quickly became apparent that this was not going to be an easy fight. The attic was difficult fighting terrain thanks to the assorted pieces of furniture and the roof supports, while the sheer weight of numbers further limited the room for manoeuvre.

For every Cyclobot he took down another four sprung up to take its place. Wes found himself being driven back until he was under the sleeping platform where the space to move was even more limited, but strangely, that gave him the advantage. The robots were too tightly packed to actually attack and effectively just lined up for him to hit them, but even so, he knew this couldn't go on.

"We need to get outta here," Eric yelled from somewhere above Wes' position.

"No kidding," Wes retorted, managing to wrench a Cyclosabre from a bot as he threw the robot into a cohort.

"Don't suppose…" there was a loud crash as a Cyclobot was thrown from the sleeping platform, "…you happen to have a plan?"

Wes fired the captured Cyclosabre, frying five of the robots. "I'm open to suggestions." But even as he said that, his eyes fell on the kitchen area of the clock tower. "Actually, I think I might have."

"Well don't keep it to yourself!"

"Can you get down here and keep 'em off me for thirty seconds?"

"I just **had** to find myself stuck with MacGyver, didn't I…" There was another crash as another Cyclobot was pushed from the sleeping platform. "Give me a second."

Wes figured that meant Eric needed the time to fight his way to the stairs and was all set to reply in the affirmative when Eric gave some kind of battle cry and literally dived from the sleeping platform. _Ho-ly **shit**!_ He looked on in amazement as Eric tucked into a mid-air summersault and landed on his feet, automatically pivoting to take out the Cyclobot he'd landed behind.

The other Cyclobots were apparently as stunned by the move as Wes was, to judge from the ease with which Eric made his way through the crush to Wes' position.

"So?" Eric prompted. "What's this plan?"

"How does a gas explosion sound to you?" Wes replied, firing the Cyclosabre at a nearby bot and then gesturing in the direction of the small gas bottle from which the stove was run.

Eric kicked another bot away before following the gesture and grinning. "Sounds good to me." He kicked another bot. "What're you waiting for?"

Wes grinned. "Just be ready to make for the balcony."

"You got it."

As Wes moved towards the gas bottle to open the valve, he was aware of Eric moving, crabwise, across to cover his back. There was nothing especially odd about it -- particularly given that Wes had asked him to do just that -- but the manoeuvre seemed so natural… He shook his head. He could speculate about Eric later, right now, it was rather more important to get this valve open.

__

C'mon you… Gotcha! "Eric -- now!" Wes exclaimed as the gas started to hiss out of the tank.

"'Bout time," Eric groused. Both of them headed towards the balcony door, Wes using the Cyclosabre as a club. Once out on the balcony, Eric glanced at Wes. "Now what? We jump?"

"You got a better idea?" Wes retorted.

Eric rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Morphing and calling the TF Eagle." Suiting action to words, Eric did just that, and as the TF Eagle appeared, he climbed in. "C'mon Wes -- blow this joint and let's get outta here!" So saying, he started to manoeuvre the TF Eagle away from the clock tower in preparation.

Wes turned and fired the Cyclosabre one last time, hitting a Cyclobot, before diving towards the TF Eagle, morphing as he went. Behind him, the clock tower exploded.

~*~

The night passed in a haze. Wes lost count of the number of Cyclobot patrols he and Eric fought, but as the first rays of sunlight heralded the dawn he decided that the number had to be well into the hundreds. The strange thing was, he felt no real sense of fatigue despite having had no proper sleep for the better part of forty-eight hours. _Adrenaline, I guess._ A glance at Eric's still morphed form, however, told a different story.

"You OK?"

Eric cocked his head. Wes got the impression the Quantum Ranger was counting to ten. Slowly. "I'll be all right." 

But that reply in itself told Wes volumes. He opened his mouth to say something, but a burst of Cyclosabre fire prevented him.

"That direction," Eric identified. Hot on the heels of the Cyclosabre fire was a burst of blaster fire. "That's guardians."

Before Wes could say anything, Eric had charged off in the direction he'd just identified. Wes sighed and followed.

Rounding the corner, Wes found three, tired looking Silver Guardians hunkered down behind the remains of a car, while advancing on them had been a group of about twenty Cyclobots. Had been. Eric was tearing into the pack and had already put paid to seven or eight bots. With a slight shrug, Wes joined the mêlée. Scant moments later and the pack of bots was disposed of.

"Oh man…" one of the Silver Guardians exclaimed. "I thought we were toast."

"That's…all…" To Wes' horror, he saw Eric's knees start to give. Without hesitation, Wes dived forward and caught the Quantum Ranger as he collapsed, preventing him from crashing to the ground.

"Sheeit!" exclaimed another of the guardians as they saw Eric demorph. Wes couldn't agree more.

"He's hurt bad, isn't he?" queried the third guardian. Looking up, Wes recognised him as the guardian who had passed on Eric's message the previous afternoon.

Wes nodded. The visible bruising and greyish pallor of Eric's face told the story. The only reason he knew Eric was even still alive was the slight rise and fall of Eric's chest, and even that was erratic. Eric needed proper medical help and urgently. But even as Wes was realising that, there was another burst of Cyclosabre fire in the near distance.

"You go deal with that," stated the guardian. "We can take care of Commander Myers."

Wes hesitated a moment, then nodded. While a part of him was concerned about Eric, the rest of him knew that he had a responsibility to the people of the city as a whole, and that wasn't going to get taken care of by staying here.

As he got back to his feet, the guardian smiled faintly. "Hey, Wes?" Wes looked at him. "Kick some Cyclobot butt."

Beneath his helmet, Wes found himself grinning. "You got it."

He turned and headed in the direction of the last burst of Cyclosabre fire. As he ran, it crossed his mind that this was likely to be his last stand, but even knowing that, Wes knew with equal certainty that there was no other way he could play this. Strangely, the knowledge that death was almost certainly waiting for him didn't actually bother him.

__

It doesn't matter if I do die, he realised. _If I don't do this, I die anyway. If I fail, I die._ He neared the downtown plaza -- the sight of his first ranger battle, nearly four months before. _Guess I'm just going to have to succeed._

Entering the plaza, however, he was greeted by a sight enough to make his blood freeze. Hundreds of Cyclobots. The zord-sized robot. All with their weapons aimed at him.

__

Oh crap.

For long, agonising moment, Wes stared at the bots and the bots stared back.

A warning flashed on his heads up display and he dived forwards into the mass of Cyclobots as the giant robot fired.

The battle was on.

It was a losing battle. In an even bigger sense of the word than the battle of the clock tower had been, this was hopeless but there was no chance of Wes quitting. He couldn't. Kick. Block. Duck. Roll. Avoid. The movements fell into a routine as he fought against the bots. It didn't seem to matter how many of them he took down, there were still more.

And there was no let up. Wes realised that the adrenaline was wearing off and fatigue was setting in. He was breathing more and more heavily and his limbs were starting to feel like lead. For one strange moment, he wondered where his friends were, and then a split second later remembered that they were some thousand years into the future, safe from this chaos -- at least, he hoped they were safe. He didn't know that for certain -- all he could do was trust Alex's word and keep blocking and parrying and ducking and kicking and rolling and avoiding.

And all the while, there was the giant robot looming over the battleground and taking almost casual pot shots at him. The only reason he had avoided those so far was because there was a split second warning on his heads up display, but his luck would not continue to hold. Sooner or later, he was going to be too tired to move.

There was a burst of static over the internal comm. system, then…

"Wes Collins, the next time you plan on committing suicide, don't leave us out of the trip."

It took a second for Wes to register who the voice belonged to. _Jen?!_ The identification brought with it a rush of emotions. Relief, fear, happiness, worry, amazement, shock. _She is going to kill me._ Looking round, he spotted the approaching Jetmode of the Time Force megazord.

"Wes," Jen continued, "can you hang in there while we take out Doomtron?"

The knowledge that help was almost at hand seemed to spur a fresh burst of energy. "Yeah. If you can keep that overgrown tin-can off my back!"

Amazingly, in spite of the situation, there was laughter in Jen's voice as she replied, "You got it."

With renewed determination, Wes set about the Cyclobots while overhead he could hear the sounds of Doomtron being engaged by the Time Force megazord. Part of him wanted to pay more attention to the zord battle, but the rest of him knew that would be suicide. While he needed to keep aware of it so as to avoid being collateral damage, the rest of his attention needed to be firmly focused on the Cyclobots.

As a result, when Doomtron's end came, he was barely aware of it. He heard the explosion, but he relegated it to being of minor importance as compared to the twenty Cyclobots currently trying to kill him. Consequently, he was a little surprised when four of the bots suddenly disintegrated in a hail of pink and green energy.

"We figured you could use a hand," Lucas explained as two more bots were destroyed, this time by blue energy.

"So what say we finish these creeps," put in Katie as two more bots went down in a shower of yellow energy.

"That sounds like the best idea I've heard all morning," Wes agreed.

With the five of them working together, Wes realised; the remaining Cyclobots had no chance. In short order, the robots had all been reduced to so much scrap metal.

Unfortunately, as he kicked the final Cyclobot into oblivion, he found himself faceplate to faceplate with Jen. Wes suspected he was about to receive a serious lecture about what he'd done. That idea was backed up by the fact that he now found himself ringed by the others. _I'm not going to regret what I did._

"Alex told us," Jen stated.

That was comfortably the last thing Wes had expected her to say, as a result all he could do was stand there.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Katie asked.

"We'd have helped you," Trip contributed.

"We're a team," Lucas added. "That should have been how we did this."

"I know." Wes sighed.

"So why didn't you tell us?" Jen asked.

Wes sighed again. "How would you have told me that you spent the night dreaming about my death?"

"We'd have found a way," Jen replied.

Saving Wes from having to find a response to that, there was a loud, maniacal laugh from directly behind Jen. Wes looked beyond her.

"Ransik."

"They say," Ransik snarled, "that if you want something doing right, you have to do it yourself."

"We're taking you **in**, Ransik," Jen retorted as she turned to face the villain.

"We'll see about **that**!"

In the blink of an eye the battle was joined.

For long moments, the battle seemed evenly poised as far as Wes was concerned. He and the rangers traded blows and energy blasts with Ransik, with neither side really making that much of an impression. Ransik had nothing to lose; the rangers had everything to gain -- it was a stand off.

Something had to give.

But it was only when Wes found himself falling towards the ground beneath the full force of one of Ransik's bonesword blasts that he realised he was the 'something'. The lack of sleep and the countless Cyclobot battles had taken their toll and Wes found himself force-demorphing. He landed, winded, weary and wounded, on his back just in front Ransik.

Ransik laughed and aimed his bonesword at Wes' head.

"Game over," Ransik hissed. "I win."

To Wes' horror, the other rangers froze.

"Let him go, Ransik," Jen called.

"My **dear**, little Pinky," Ransik retorted, "you're in no position to make that demand. Demorph now."

"Don't do it!" Wes urged. "Keep figh…" But the rest of his sentence came out as a groan as Ransik kicked him in the ribs.

"Demorph now and he gets to live a little longer!" snapped Ransik.

"Power down." Jen's command was toneless. In four flashes of light, the other rangers demorphed.

"Jen you can't…"

"And you," Ransik snarled, aiming and landing another kick on Wes' ribcage, "be silent or I'll cut your tongue out."

"**DADDY NO!**"

There was a blur of pink-and-white that passed across Wes' field of vision and suddenly he found Nadira standing between him and Ransik.

"Nadira!?" Ransik's bemused exclamation rather summed up the situation.

"I won't let you hurt him," Nadira replied. Her voice was unsteady, as though she'd been crying.

"Get out of my way, Nadira," Ransik hissed.

"No."

There was a long, tense moment as father and daughter stared at one another.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you have to be stopped."

Ransik opened his mouth to reply but he never had the chance to speak as a shot of chrono-blaster energy hit him squarely in the chest. He went down, hard. Nadira gave a startled yelp.

"It's OK -- set to stun," Jen stated. "Time Force doesn't kill."

Wes looked round and realised that while Ransik had been distracted by Nadira's sudden arrival, all four rangers had drawn their blasters. Only Jen had fired.

"It's over," Jen continued, waving Katie and Lucas forward. Wes watched as they crossed to Ransik's prone form, checked he was breathing and then chrono-froze him.

It really was over.

They had done it.

They had survived -- and won.

At that realisation, the last of the adrenaline that had been sustaining Wes for two full days gave out and his consciousness gently faded into a soothing black.

~*~

The first thing Wes noticed as he started to wake was the faint smell of flowers.

__

Since when did the clock tower couch smell of flowers?

Hot on the heels of that revelation was the discovery that he had been sleeping beneath some sort of cover and…someone had taken the time to fully undress him.

"Ah, good morning Master Wesley."

__

Either I'm hallucinating, or that's Phillips.

Wes cracked an eye open and found himself staring up at the ceiling of his old bedroom in his father's mansion.

__

What the…? Did I just have a particularly vivid dream?

"Miss Scotts will be delighted you've woken up."

That brought Wes bolt upright. Looking around, he confirmed that yes, he was in the mansion, yes, he was in his old bedroom, and that yes, Phillips was standing in the doorway. Phillips, however, looked more amused than normal.

__

What the hell?!

Slowly, however, the last of the sleep-fog left his mind and finally the events of the last few days came back to him.

"You've been asleep twenty-four hours," Phillips commented, the clear implication being Wes should have long since learned how to take better care of himself. "Your friends have been staying here -- at your father's insistence. Now that you're awake…I'll tell them."

Before Wes could even ask Phillips to give him ten minutes to find some clothing, the butler had left.

__

Oh crap.

Wes forced himself out of bed, wincing as stiff and abused muscles complained at the movement, and across to his closet.

__

Jen probably still wants to kill me -- I am **not** letting her yell at me while I'm just dressed in boxer shorts.

He had just managed to pull on a pair of sweatpants when there was a knock on the door.

"Wes?"

Hastily, he grabbed a shirt and pulled it on before turning to face the door. "Yeah?"

For answer, the door opened and Jen walked in. "How are you feeling?" she asked, coming to a halt about a yard away from him.

For one absurd moment, Wes considered lying, but that would only put off the inevitable. "Bit stiff, bit tired…basically OK."

Jen nodded and a heavy silence filled the room until Wes thought it was just possible she was so annoyed with him she was going to walk out -- an idea which hurt more than he thought was possible. 

"Why?" she asked.

The word was softly spoken, but it held a multitude of connotations as far as Wes was concerned. "I thought Alex had explained…"

"What he explained," said Jen angrily, "was what he had offered you. Not why you followed his orders." Wes flinched. "Wes, we are a **team**. That is our strength." He flinched again. "You had no right to do what you did…"

"And if we're a team," Wes retorted, "why didn't I get a say about whether or not you guys went back?" Jen opened her mouth to say something, but Wes shook his head. "And don't tell me it's different, because if it wasn't my right to follow Alex's orders -- and do what I felt was right -- then it wasn't yours to exclude me from that discussion."

There was another long, heavy silence. Wes forced himself to meet Jen's angry gaze. He would **not** regret what he'd done.

Jen was first to look away.

"Guess we all made mistakes," she said softly.

Wes nodded. "Yeah -- guess we did."

There was yet another silence.

"What happens now?" Wes finally asked.

Clearly relieved by the change of topic, Jen smiled briefly. "Ransik and Nadira have been taken back to 3000 to stand trial."

Wes nodded. "Did Nadira explain her change of heart?"

Jen smiled faintly. "You'll never believe this." Wes waited. "It was to do with your dad."

Wes blinked, startled. "**My** dad?"

She nodded. "When Ransik trashed Biolab and hurt your father. She saw what it did to you and started to realise that, really, mutants and humans aren't so different -- and that, maybe, her father was wrong to be trying to wipe humans out. Then she got to hear Frax's story."

"Oh?"

She nodded again. "Dr Louis Ferricks. Brilliant scientist and humanitarian -- according to the history banks. He developed the antidote to Venomark's bite, amongst other things." Wes nodded slowly. "No-one knew what happened to him -- his lab was torched one night, no body ever recovered. According to Nadira, it was her father who trashed the lab, and attempted to kill Ferricks -- just because he was human and even though Ferricks had just helped him after Venomark had bitten him -- only Ferricks survived."

"By turning himself into Frax?" Wes suggested.

"Uh-huh. Nadira saw what had happened to Frax -- you know he was in Doomtron when it exploded?" Wes shook his head, he hadn't known that. "And she didn't want to see her father end up the same way. Even if that meant making sure he went to cryo-prison this time."

Wes nodded. "Will she go to cryo-prison?"

Jen shrugged. "It's up to the judges. I've written a testimony on her behalf, pointing out that she's actually done very little, **real** harm here. Not to say she didn't cause trouble -- and not to say she didn't do wrong -- just that she isn't evil and that she deserves a chance to prove that."

Wes nodded again. "What about Gluto?"

Jen paced away from him. "Gluto's at the prison -- Nadira showed us the location before she left this morning. Alex and a group of Time Force officers arrive tomorrow to help clean up things like that." Wes judged from the set of her shoulders and the way she mentioned it that she was not looking forward to seeing Alex. Nor was he, come to think of it. She turned back to him. "The Silver Guardians are going to help with that -- in fact, it'll be the Silver Guardians who apparently do all the clear up."

That reminded Wes of the one clear casualty of the whole battle. "Speaking of the Guardians…"

Jen smiled. "Eric's in hospital -- but he'll be OK."

"Do you know what happened to him?"

Jen nodded, her smile fading. "One of the bone shards from the fractured ribs pierced his lung."

There was no accusation there, but Wes knew that Eric wouldn't have got that injury had the others been there. "He'll be OK?"

Jen nodded, clearly reading his expression. "Ben Johnston got him to the hospital in time, Wes -- he'll be OK."

"But he wouldn't be there at all if I hadn't done what I did."

"You said that, not me," Jen replied quietly.

Wes nodded. "I know."

Silence fell once more.

"Master Wesley -- your father wishes to know if you and Miss Scotts will be joining him for lunch?" Phillips' question startled them both.

Wes looked at Jen. She shrugged. "Yeah."

"Very good -- lunch is in half an hour."

Wes glanced down at himself. "Guess I'd better get dressed properly," he mumbled.

"I'll leave you to it." Jen turned to leave the room, then hesitated and looked back at him. "I'm sorry for not including you in that meeting."

"I'm sorry for sending you back," Wes replied.

She smiled. "Friends?"

Wes grinned. "Always."

~*~

A week passed by in a flurry of activity. Wes somehow found the time to visit Eric while he was still in hospital, but that was the only remotely 'social' thing he did in that time. Every other spare moment was spent working either with the Guardians or working with the Time Force officers who were masquerading as Guardians in an effort to insure that all thirtieth century technology was removed from 2001. Although involving the Guardians had meant explaining to his father that the other rangers weren't from this time period -- something which Wes had figured his father would take badly.

All his father had said was, "Well that certainly explains a few things."

But now all that was done. Silverhills was officially 'clean' and all that remained was for the other rangers to return to the year 3000.

"I wish you didn't have to go," Wes observed, as he led the way down onto the beach where the time ship was waiting.

"We don't exactly have a choice this time," said Lucas.

"Destiny force," Trip explained morosely. "If we stay, sooner or later the timeline will purge us."

Wes sighed. "I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it." _It means Jen and I can't be together and **that** is what I really hate._

The reached the beach and there was a long, drawn out hesitation.

"Guess this is it, huh?" said Katie, finally.

"Guess it is," Wes agreed. "I'm gonna miss you guys." No-one moved. Wes swallowed and stepped forward towards Lucas, offering his hand. "Lucas…you take it easy now -- no more speeding tickets, right?"

Lucas snickered faintly. "Right."

They shook hands, then Lucas slowly turned and headed into the time ship.

"Wes, you're the best," Katie proclaimed, hugging him even as he watched Lucas enter the time ship.

"Katie!" Wes exclaimed as she did her best to hug the life out of him.

  
She released him and looked abashed. "I'm sorry…"

But Wes shook his head. "It's OK, Katie -- I'm gonna miss you…and your hugs."

She smiled. "Good bye, Wes."

As she turned and headed towards the time ship, Wes turned to Trip. He opened his mouth to say something, but Trip smiled faintly and shook his head. "I know," the Xybrian said. "I'll miss you too."

Wes went to shake hands with Trip as he had done with Lucas, but Trip pulled him down into a hug almost as tight as Katie's.

"It'll be OK," Trip whispered, before letting Wes straighten up again.

Wes wondered what Trip meant by that cryptic phrase, but Trip shook his head. _Guess I'll find out, huh?_ Trip grinned faintly and turned towards the time ship. From his backpack appeared Circuit's head.

"Bye Wes," the robotic owl contributed.

Wes smiled. "You take care of Trip, Circuit."

"Always have, always will," Circuit replied.

And then Wes slowly turned to the last ranger. Jen. She had said nothing the whole way down to the beach -- in fact, she'd said nothing all morning -- and a look at her now told Wes that she was hurting just as much as he was.

"I wish you could stay," Wes whispered.

"So do I," Jen admitted. "We both know I can't."

Wes nodded. "I know."

She put her hand into her jacket pocket and pulled out a Time Force badge. "I know Alex said you could keep the morpher…but I want to give you something…to…" she trailed off and swallowed. "Anyway. This is for you." She handed over the badge.

For a long moment, their hands touched. It took every shred of restraint for Wes not to grab her outstretched hand and never let it go.

"Don't ever forget me," she asked, lowering her hand. "Please."

"There's no chance of that," Wes answered.

Jen smiled faintly and started towards the time ship, only to stop and turn back to him. "Wes…I…" She shook her head -- whether at herself, or at him he wasn't sure -- and then stepped up to him, drawing him into an embrace. "I should have told you this a long time ago," she whispered. "I love you."

Wes returned the embrace not sure whether to laugh or cry at the admission. "I love you too," he answered. "That's why I did what I did."

Jen hiccuped. Laughter or tears, Wes wasn't sure. "Katie said that's why you did it."

"Guess they know us better than we do, huh?"

Jen hiccuped again and Wes felt something wet against his shoulder where Jen's head was resting. Tears, then. "I'm sorry…"

Slowly she pulled away and this time, as she headed for the time ship, she didn't stop.

Wes watched her into the time ship, watched as the time ship went through its launch routine, watched as it lifted off and entered its time hole, watched as the time hole finally closed behind it, watched and wondered. Would they be all right? Would he see them again? He smiled faintly. Would Jen like the little thing he'd tucked into her bag when she hadn't been looking?

Slowly shaking his head, he turned and headed back up to the road where his father and Eric were waiting in deference to his feelings.

"Saw them go," Eric observed. "OK?"

__

That, Wes mused, _is going to take some getting used to -- Eric acting like a normal member of the human race._ "Yeah."

"So," began his father, "what now?"

Wes shrugged. "I don't know." He truly hadn't given the future any thought.

"I have a business proposal for you," his father replied.

Wes groaned. "Dad…"

"Now, just hear me out." Wes waited. "I'm going to be making some changes to the Silver Guardians -- Silverhills PD have asked us to work for them, there's a small fee involved, but essentially, the Guardians will be working for free and working for everyone. I need a good leader…"

Wes groaned again. "And you've got one. Eric."

Eric gave a huff of laughter, then winced, presumably as his ribs complained at the sudden movement. "Well, thank you for the vote of confidence, Wes, but there's just one slight problem. The docs have signed me off any kind of physical activity for the next two months: No lifting, no carrying, no martial arts, go easy on the walking and the breathing. The Guardians need someone a bit more active than that."

"And I'm not asking you to replace Eric," his father continued. "Or only in the short term -- technically."

Wes looked from his father to Eric and back again. "You mean that?"

"My idea," said Eric. "Co-commanders."

Wes chewed the suggestion over. It wasn't like he had anything else to be doing and Eric seemed genuinely happy with the suggestion. _And at least this will keep me from brooding._ "OK -- you're on."

__

TO BE CONTINUED…


	20. Who I Am

Disclaimer: Once more with feeling. The character isn't mine, the concept is. You're welcome to borrow, but asking me first would be nice.

~*~

Identity -- Who I Am

__

From the journal of Wes Collins, October 1st 2001

I can't believe it's all over.

I can't believe it's only been four months.

I can't believe she's gone.

I never got to say thank you to her...to them for everything they've done for me -- and it was a lot. They gave me a chance to become someone else -- to change... For want of a better phrase, they gave me the chance to be a hero. And in four short months, I've done that. I've gone beyond what I thought was me. I'm not who I was back in June.

And I like that.

I can look in the mirror now and actually like what I see. I don't feel the need to hide behind a façade anymore either. I can just be who I am.

I guess you could say I'm secure in my identity.

But where do I go from here? What do I do now? How do I get on without her?

Part of me says, "Give up, life's not worth living without the other half of your heart." But that's not the man I am now. She taught me that life is worth living, regardless. I can't just hide away. That isn't what she'd want me to do -- and it isn't what **I** want to do.

Besides. I have this feeling that this isn't over.

The fat lady hasn't sung yet.

I don't know what is going to come next, but I feel sure that isn't the last time I will see her. And with that knowledge, I know I can get through however long it takes.

I will see her again.

__

TO BE CONTINUED IN MAX FORCE...

~*~

End Credits

There are a number of people who deserve special mention for all the help and support they've given me during the course of the last five months. In no particular order...

Gamine -- for listening to me whine, prodding me when I slacked and being there to bounce bits and pieces of plot off.

Selma -- for the cattle prodding and occasional plot chewing

Ecolea -- for the occasional cattle prodding, frequent plot chewing and assorted bits and pieces of advice.

Leathie -- for the advice and psychology help.

Jesse at PRSW -- who probably doesn't realise that most of this is actually his fault... Literally, without the PRSW website, none of this would have been possible.

Last but definitely not least, Ekat -- who didn't like the Power Rangers when I started but who graciously beta read for me anyway and without whom this story would have been equally impossible.

Thank you -- without you guys, this story would have been all the poorer.

Thank you also to you, the people reading this. As clichéd as this will sound, at times you have been my inspiration.

Lastly, there has to be a vote of thanks to the cast, crew and (most importantly) writers of PRTF because no incarnation of Power Rangers has inspired me quite like this before and I doubt it will do again.

Six months, twenty chapters, seventy thousand words. Book One in the Identiverse is now complete.


End file.
